Seeds of the Future
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: When an unplanned trip to the future by Hiro reveals Sylar's plan for revenge against the only man who can equal him, the remaining heroes must band together before Peter and Claire pay the ultimate price -Paire, slight AU of 'HTSAEM'-
1. Sylar's Revenge

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Updates for this may be slow, but I wanted to get this up before the new season started and I start openly contradicting anything that happens there

AN 2: My experience of the shows is limited only to what's aired so far in the UK on BBC 2 and a few scripts and synopsises I've read on the net; I think I've got the plots and character interactions down right, but if I write something that unintentionally actively contradicts something in the show, please let me know and I'll try to change it as soon as I can

AN 3: This chapter takes place at the conclusion of 'Distractions' and the beginning of 'Run!'; if something here doesn't quite match the way Meredith acted at this time, please let me know

Seeds of the Future

As she picked up the phone, Meredith swallowed anxiously as she went over once more what she had to say. She knew that she _had _to do this, of course- it was either do this or die- but that didn't mean she had to _like _it. Lying about her daughter's parentage out of the need to give the girl a parent was one thing- she'd long ago accepted the lies she'd had to tell- but lying directly to the man who'd never been the father in the first place?

It made no sense…

But she had to do it.

As she paced up and down in front of her sofa, a cigarette in her other hand, she kept on telling herself that; it was the only reason she wasn't just taking a chance and trying to show this _bastard _in the corner what she could do if she wanted to do it.

"_Hello_?" the familiar voice said on the other end of the line. For a moment, Meredith almost forgot why she was doing this- just to hear his voice again brought back all kinds of feelings she thought she'd put behind her- but she forced herself to stay back on topic.

"Um..." she said into the phone, trying to sound less uncertain than she felt. "You might not remember me. We- we haven't spoken in a long time, but... I just had..."

Noting a glare from the man standing in her corner, she forced herself to say what she was here to say in the first place.

"Our daughter just found me," she said.

For a moment, there was silence, until Meredith finally spoke again.

"Did you hear what I just said?" she repeated into the phone. "She's _alive_."

"_Meredith_?" Nathan's voice said on the other end of the line, incredulity evident in his voice.

Meredith smiled slightly; at least she was past the initial contact.

Now, all that remained was the lie…

"We need to talk," she said, pausing for a moment to wait for Nathan to reply.

Nothing.

Rolling her eyes, Meredith spoke into the phone once again, trying to sound impatient; if this wasn't authentic, she'd be in serious trouble.

"Nathan, are you still there?" she asked critically.

"_It's… it's been fourteen _years," Nathan's voice weakly protested on the other line. "_I went to your _funeral."

"Look, that fire-" Meredith began, before stopping herself as she stood up and began to walk towards the kitchen, unhindered by the man in the room; so long as she didn't try to leave, he wouldn't do anything to her.

Besides, right now she needed to at least _pretend _she was on her own while telling this extra lie to the man she'd once loved. More lies may not be the best idea right now, but it was all she could do if she wanted to keep her 'talents' quiet; she didn't want Nathan to reject his daughter because he regarded her as some freak of nature.

"It… it wasn't an accident," she said as she continued to walk. Someone was out to get me, and the police, they just assumed I was dead, so... I ran."

Once again, there was a brief silence on the other end of the line, before Nathan spoke once more.

"_And our daughter_?" he asked.

Meredith allowed herself a small, pleased chuckle at that; at least she could be honest here, even if everything else was a lie.

"Well, she's got an angel on her shoulder, that one," she said, allowing her pleasure at the life her child had found to come through as she sat down on a table in the main 'dining area' of the trailer. "She was adopted by a nice family here in Texas. She's sixteen now. And she's beautiful. She's got blond hair, like me… and she is smart, just like you. Maybe one day she'll run for Congress."

At that comment, there was a brief pause on the other end of the line, before Nathan spoke once more.

"_The timing of... your call_," he said, slowly and carefully, as though he wanted to make sure that there were no misunderstandings. "_Two weeks before my election, that- that's not a coincidence, is it_?"

Even as the words began to come out of her mouth, Meredith wished she could stop them, even as she knew that she couldn't if she was going to stop her visitor from making good on his threat.

He'd told her what she had to say, and she'd say it.

"A child born out of wedlock?" she said, trying now to sound colder than she really felt. "That's big news. You wouldn't want that to come out. Ruin things for you-"

"_How much do you want_?" Nathan asked on the other end of the line.

"Oh," Meredith said, pausing as though she wanted time to think of a decent number, "um…

"_One hundred thousand dollars_?" Nathan's voice broke into her train of thought, giving her the perfect opportunity to finish things.

"Yeah," she said simply. "That ought to cover it; I'll let you know where to send it."

With that, she hung up the phone call and turned to look at the man standing before her, a grim expression on her face.

"All right," she said simply, folding her arms as she looked at him. "I've done what you wanted; now, would you care to tell me _why _I needed to do that?"

"Simple enough, my dear Miss Gordon," the man replied, chuckling slightly as he raised one hand, flexing it slightly as he studied her. "I needed time to make sure that you weren't lying."

Meredith blinked in confusion.

"Excuse me?" she said, staring at the man before her sceptically. "What do you mean, you needed to make sure that I wasn't lying?"

"I'm afraid that the answer to that question is for me to know, and you to… _never _find out," the man replied, a slight smirk on his face as his left hand began to glow in a worrying manner. "Now then, let's just… take this outside."

Meredith barely even blinked before she suddenly found herself sprawled on the ground outside her trailer, staring up in shock at the man who had so recently been standing inside. A coarse of sweat covered the man's skin, as though he'd made some tremendous physical exertion, but he appeared to have recovered from it, whatever it was.

"Damn…" he gasped briefly, as he stared grimly ahead of him, Meredith apparently forgotten. "That damn… Japanese guy… was _really_ good…"

Meredith didn't stop to question what that might have meant; she had a chance to strike back, and she was going to take it. Unconcerned about the fact that she hadn't done it on this kind of scale for ages- turning the stove on and trying to incinerate a man were not the same thing-, Meredith focused everything she was on the man in front of her, praying that she'd manage to get through whatever defences he might have erected to stop her- she was rapidly seeing that there was more to him than she might have initially suspected-, before she launched a burst of flame directly towards him, aiming for his face, determined to fry this smug bastard before he could finish what he'd threatened to start…

But it accomplished nothing; the man merely raised his still-glowing left hand, waved his fingers slightly, and the fire died out as though it had never been summoned.

"Impressive," the man said, tilting his head to one side as he looked at her, his tone of voice making it clear he hadn't expected her to be capable of that. "May I ask why you didn't do it earlier?" Then he answered his own question. "Of course; you haven't _used _it on that kind of scale for years, have you? You wouldn't attack earlier because you saw a chance of getting away _without _needing to use something that you don't deserve and can't control…"

He chuckled slightly as he looked at where Meredith lay on the ground, still staring in shock at what had just taken place. "Not that it matters, of course; you're still going to die."

"Who… who _are _you?" Meredith asked, desperate to get at least that piece of information out of this man before he did whatever he was going to do to her.

Raising his left hand to point at her, the man smirked once more.

"Call me Sylar," he said simply.

The last thing Meredith saw, as she suddenly felt the blinding pain of every molecule in her body apparently simultaneously deciding to become a liquid rather than a solid, was her killer's body suddenly shimmering as though it was taking on the appearance of something else; she thought that his new hair colour resembled her own…

Then her brain collapsed, her body crossed the line between being a solid and being little more than a liquid, and she knew nothing more.

* * *

As he studied the pile of sludge that was all that remained of the woman whose appearance he had just assumed, Sylar smirked slightly as he turned back to the trailer, leaving the sludge to be washed away by the rain and wind; it was late at night, so he was confident that nobody would find it in time to determine what it might once have been. 

So far, at least, everything had gone according to plan. Meredith's conversation with Nathan Petrelli had confirmed pretty much everything she'd told him about their past relationship- his heightened hearing had even allowed him to confirm when she was lying to him beyond the lies she'd been ordered to tell-, her body had been eliminated with the minimum of fuss and attention- he'd already acquired firestarting, and so need to pick it up again-, and his new appearance seemed to be pretty much exactly what he was looking for.

Now all he had to do was hope that history played out according to what he'd learned after reading the files in that computer- which it had no reason to do otherwise, he knew-, wait for Claire to call Meredith once again, and then allow this new chain of events to unfold the way he'd planned.

_You claimed you could always defeat me, Peter_? He thought mockingly, his mind, as always, consumed by thoughts of his long-time adversary, the only superhuman whose powers could come close to equalling his own, as he accessed a power that was rapidly becoming one of his favourite abilities. _Let's see how you manage _without_ your little cheerleader in your corner_…

This wasn't going to be an easy plan to pull off- even with all his powers, it had taken him some time to assure that he'd covered all the variables-, but, if he played his cards right, it was _definitely _going to be worthwhile.

* * *

AN 4: Just to let you know, the next chapter jumps to the immediate aftermath of 'HTSAEM'; in this universe, Meredith's subsequent appearances in 'Run!', from 'her' phone conversation with Claire to 'her' meeting with Nathan were all Sylar in disguise. His motives for this deception? Wait and see… 


	2. How to Survive an Exploding Man

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Well, here we are; my personal idea of how Nathan and Peter survived the explosion at the conclusion of 'How To Stop An Exploding Man'. Hope it meets with your approval; I think I've covered the essential details, but you never know what you might miss

Seeds of the Future

Peter Petrelli knew he was going to die… 

… _When he jumped from the top of a block of flats, the ground hurtling towards him as his supposed powers of flight failed him…_

… _As he fell from the roof of Claire's school, struggling with the man he'd come to know as Sylar, feeling a sharp pain in the back of his head…_

… _As he fell into unconsciousness, his visions playing out the destruction of New York and the death of his would-be allies like it was nothing more than a demented home movie…_

… _As he lay on the taxicab, his body wracked with agony, seeming unable to fly or even heal from the damage caused after he tried to put Claude's lessons into action…_

… _As Sylar began to cut into his skull, pinned to the ground like a butterfly trapped in a collection of some sort…_

… _And as he stood in the centre of Times Square, his body glowing with radiation as he rapidly transformed into the bomb that he had been trying to stop for the last few weeks, staring desperately at the only person left who could end this._

"_Do it," he pleaded, as Claire Bennet- blonde, beautiful, innocent Claire Bennet- pointed a gun at him, her hands shaking as she tried to aim the weapon. "__Do it! You're the only one, Claire."_

_He deserved the fate that awaited him now; he may not like it, but he knew for a fact that he deserved it._

_Not only because of the fact that he had become the very thing he had wanted to stop and this was the only way to prevent the disaster he'd fought to avert…_

_But because- even now- looking at the young woman before him, knowing who she was and how she was related to him, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to take her in his arms and kiss her… do… _things _to her… remove her clothes… touch her… feel her fingers on him… All things he should _not _be thinking about when his newly-discovered niece was the subject of the thoughts in question._

_He deserved to die for thinking of her like that.  
_

_But, even now, Claire either didn't see how he felt about her, or just couldn't bring herself to do it in spit of that._

"_Tell me there's another way," she sobbed as she stared at him, her face wet with tears as the gun shook in her hand. "_Please_…"_

"Shoot _me!" Peter insisted, trying not to pay too much attention to the pain in her eyes; he couldn't afford to focus on what he was doing to her, or he would lose the resolve he so desperately needed right now. "There's no other way!"_

_For a moment, as Claire tightened her grip on the gun, Peter braced himself for the bullet that would soon lodge itself in his body somewhere, the bullet that would finally end all the thoughts he wished he didn't have but could no more stop than he could stop his own heart from beating…_

_Then, with a brief _SWOOSH! _sound, Nathan landed in front of Claire, positioning himself directly between his brother and his daughter as he turned to look at the young blonde before him._

"Yes, there is, Claire," he said, his voice soft as he pushed the gun in Claire's hand down towards the ground. Feeling the power surge through him, Peter tried to take a step back, even as he knew it would accomplish nothing; according to Issac's painting, the explosion would take out all of New York, and he thought stepping back a few feet would give Nathan and Claire any kind of protection from what he was about to do? 

"_The future isn't written in stone," Nathan said as he looked at Claire, his eyes reflecting his concern for his daughter for the first time since Peter had seen them together._

_For a moment, Peter almost wished that he could see them continue to develop that bond, even as he knew how hard it would be for him to see Claire be accepted all the more by his family, leaving him unable to do anything more than look and dream of what could never be…_

"_I took his power, Nathan," he said, drawing his brother's attention back to him as he tried to convey the severity of the current situation to him. "I can't control it. I can't do anything-"  
_

"_I'm not leaving you, Peter," Nathan interrupted, looking critically at his brother. Even as Peter tried to back away in an admittedly futile effort to protect Nathan, his body bursting with light as the power contained within him grew, Nathan continued to walk towards him, a resolved expression on his face as he moved._

"_There's another way to end this," Nathan said simply, as he stood in front of his brother. "And you know it."  
_

_Peter shook his head; he knew exactly what Nathan meant, and he wasn't going to allow it._

"_I can't let you die," he said, as he stared at Nathan._

"_And I can't let everyone else," his brother replied simply._

_With that, he turned to look briefly at Claire, before turning back to smile slightly at Peter. "_You _saved the cheerleader... so _we _could save the world."  
_

_With that simple sentence, for the first time since his powers had first manifested, Peter finally found it within himself to see Nathan as his brother rather than a potential enemy._

"_I love you, Nathan," he said, allowing himself a slight smile as he looked at his brother._

"_I love you too," Nathan replied, briefly returning the smile before he looked up at the sky, staring reflectively at the stars before turning back to look at him. "You ready?"_

"_Yeah," Peter replied, nodding in response._

_It was a slight lie, of course- how could you _ever _be ready to die?-, but, when the alternative- die and take New York with him- was even more unacceptable, he had no choice but to say that he was ready._

_If nothing else, at least Claire might feel less pain at what was about to happen if she thought he had accepted his fate…  
_

_With that, Nathan stepped forward, wrapped his arms around Peter, and flew them both straight up into the sky, moving at a speed that would have made most aeroplanes look slow._

As the two of them neared the top of their flight, Peter smiled slightly as he allowed himself a brief glance downwards at the sight of New York spread out below them. 

_He was out of harm's way._

_Claire and the others would live no matter what happened now; he doubted he would even damage the highest of skyscrapers if he exploded this far off the ground._

_Now all he had to do was ensure that his_ brother _got out of this unscratched, and he could die with a clear conscience._

_Staring resolutely at Nathan, he smiled slightly as he 'felt' the familiar feeling of flight powers- the first powers he'd ever copied- fill him once again, temporarily breaking through the pain of Sprague's radioactive powers because of Nathan's close proximity; at least _that _part of his hastily put-together plan seemed to have worked out as he'd hoped it would._

Here goes nothing_… he reflected to himself._

_Before Nathan could react, Peter, exerting all the superhuman strength he must have copied from that blonde woman in Times Square- he briefly regretted never having had the chance to know her better-, broke free of Nathan's grip on his arms, simultaneously hurling himself away from the skyscrapers below him as he sent Nathan flying in the opposite direction. He didn't know what way he was going, but that didn't matter; all that mattered was that he wasn't in a position to hurt anybody in New York when he exploded…_

_Then, just as his brother vanished into the distance of the starry night sky, he felt the energy that he'd been fighting to contain since the whole thing started be expelled from his body. As the raw power burst from all around him, Peter desperately strained to access Matt Parkman's telepathy to determine his brother's location, praying that Nathan had managed to get far enough away that the explosion wouldn't affect him. He vaguely registered something that sounded like Nathan practically screaming in pain and rage at what Peter had done, but the pain seemed to be purely mental. Physically, it seemed to Peter that Nathan was far enough away from him at the time of the explosion to escape the worst of it, while his body- enhanced just enough to endure the friction of travelling at the speed of sound without any damage- was strong enough to cope with what parts of the explosion _did_ reach him._

_Nathan would survive._

_He'd be a bit singed, and might need to go through a quick decontamination before he made contact with anybody else in case there was any residual radiation on him from the explosion, but he'd survive nevertheless._

_As Peter felt himself hurtle towards the distant shoreline, the explosive energy that had once burst from his body rapidly fading, he briefly allowed himself to wonder if he could say the same for himself. Judging by the speed and direction in which he was flying/falling (He wasn't sure if he couldn't control his descent in his current state, but he couldn't summon the mental energy to try), it looked like he'd end up hitting the ground somewhere near one of the main roads out of New York. It wasn't going to be a pleasant place to land, but at least he'd be far enough away from the city to avoid hurting anyone, to say nothing of giving his body time for the radiation to 'die' if it still remained at least somewhat radioactive after his… death._

_He was under no illusions that he could survive this one; after the amount of energy he'd just expended, he considered himself lucky that he was actually still conscious in the first place. _

_As the ground drew closer and closer to him, he allowed himself one last thought before he met the surface below him, his entire being focused on one person, and the feelings she'd awoken in him that he knew he shouldn't possess but couldn't stop himself from feeling._

Claire_…_

_Even though he knew it was wrong with every part of his being- even though he knew that, even if he somehow survived this crash, he would never be able to be with her the way he wanted to be-, a part of him would always love her. _

_Then there was a sudden pain in the back of his head as he struck the ground- for a moment he was surprised that his head was still _attached_ to the rest of him-, and then he knew nothing more._


	3. Picking Up the Pieces

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: My Japanese skills are as close to non-existent as makes no odds, so when Hiro's speaking Japanese it will be represented as /\_this_/\; hope this helps

AN 2: This is where the "Slight AU of 'HTSAEM'" thing that I mentioned comes into play; the rest of the episode was the same as the original, but the bit where Hiro warps away when he's about to hit a building and wakes up in 17th century Japan? Doesn't happen here; he wakes up in a _different _destination, where he has some both pleasant and unpleasant surprises awaiting him

Seeds of the Future

_Hiro Nakamura_  
_New York City, 2013_

Even after all the weeks that had gone by since he first acquired his powers, Hiro Nakamura still acknowledged that he had a great deal to understand about them. Sometimes he could control precisely

Whenever anyone asked him about the teleport he took after Sylar sent him flying, however, he would always describe it as one where Destiny clearly played her role.

Even immediately after his teleport, Hiro was never certain when he had managed to spare the time and thought necessary to activate his powers and save his life. One minute, he was flying through the air after attempting to stab Sylar, his body seemingly destined to collide with the buildings behind him like an egg thrown against the wall…

Then, without any more sign than a temporary silence, and the strange feeling that everything around him had moved to accommodate his existence, Hiro hit the ground, rolling with the impact before he finally managed to stop himself.

"Ugh…" he groaned, clutching his head as he stared dazedly at his surroundings, his sword held tightly in his other hand. "/\_Where am I_/\?"

Glancing around, he was relieved to see that he was standing inside Issac Mendez's old attic; at least he knew where he was, even if when was still a valid question. Paintings still hung all around the attic, but judging from the thin layer of dust on all of them, they had clearly been painted some time ago, so at least he wouldn't run the risk of creating a paradox by meeting Issac early.

As Hiro stood up and studied the room, sliding the sword into a notch on his belt as he did so- he wanted it available without causing anyone to focus directly on it-, his eyes fell on a faintly gleaming plaque on one wall, covered in a thin layer of grime, but still legible when you went up to it.

As he walked over to the plaque, Hiro quickly scanned the words written on it, allowing himself a small smile as he read the writing before him.

_The Issac Mendez Memorial Gallery_  
_Died November 1__st__ 2008  
__He Painted to Save the Future He Would Never See_

Hiro smiled slightly at that- at least, whatever else happened, Issac's role in the fight to save New York would not be forgotten- but his smile faded slightly as he studied the dusty loft around him.

_This _was the memorial of a man who'd risked his health and his life to do one truly good deed in his life, when nobody could have blamed him from running from the powers that allowed him to see his own death? A seemingly abandoned loft and a plaque that nobody seemed to have cleaned for ages?

_He deserved more than this_, Hiro mused to himself, saddened at the thought as he reached out to touch a nearby painting, this one showing Claire as she tried to flee from Sylar's initial attack. The man had _known _what Sylar would do to him if he knew of his powers… and yet, rather than use that power to save himself, Issac had continued to paint the future, for no other reason than to provide others with knowledge that could help them to save New York. If that didn't make him a hero, Hiro would like to know what would.

On the bright side, looking out of the window at the landscape before him, Hiro could see that at least he was still in an intact, undamaged New York; assuming the other heroes had succeeded in their goal to defeat Sylar, he couldn't be that far away in terms of either the past or the future.

Of course, if they'd failed and he'd arrived years after the reconstruction work had been finished, he was so far into the future that he didn't even want to _begin _to think about it, but he'd hope for the best until he had reason to think otherwise.

_Right then_, Hiro nodded to himself as he stepped back from the plaque to study his surrounding once more. _Whatever else happened here, we saved New York; I accomplished that much already. All I need to do now is_-

The sound of footsteps outside the room prompted him to stop his eyes briefly widening in fear.

"/\_Oh_, nuts/\," Hiro muttered, as he anxiously glanced around himself before his eyes fell on a full length grouping of pictures that he vaguely recognized as the first ones Issac had painted of Claire.

It wasn't a perfect hiding-place, but it would have to do; after the warp he'd just pulled off, Hiro would prefer not to freeze time until he'd given himself a few minutes to 'recharge'. Diving towards the pictures, he stood behind them, trying to control his breathing and avoid making too much sound…

"What the… Hiro?" a voice said from behind the paintings.

Hiro's eyes widened in horror.

It was Matt Parkman's voice.

The man who, the _last _time he'd come to the future, had wanted him dead because his future self was apparently a ruthless terrorist.

"Oh yeah, _that _whole thing…" Matt's voice said, chuckling slightly. Clearly, his telepathic powers were still as strong as ever in this future, a fact that brought no comfort to Hiro; they hadn't stopped the man from wanting to kill him for his future self's crimes the last time he was here.

"Look, don't worry about that," Matt's voice said, clearly trying to be reassuring as he spoke to the man on the other side of the paintings. "The future you were in last time never happened. We beat Sylar in the past shortly after you ended up here, New York didn't explode, Nathan wasn't replaced by that guy, and I can assure you that I am in no way interested in killing you because you're a terrorist here; actually, you're a pretty good friend of mine."

Hiro paused for a moment as he stood behind the paintings, his mind racing to try and sort out what action he should take. If Future Matt was lying to him, there was a very good chance he'd just end up in a repeat of the last time he'd been in this situation- imprisoned for stuff he hadn't done yet- except that this time he'd have nobody else with him to help him get back home…

But, on the other hand, Matt seemed more willing to listen to his claims to be from the past in this timeline; at least that probably meant he wasn't _quite _so closed-minded about the idea of Hiro's time-travel abilities as he'd been before.

Besides, he was the only person here that Hiro knew, even if his experience with the guy in the 'previous future'- if that was the right term to use- hadn't been that pleasant; if he was going to be here until he could warp home, he had to have _somebody _to help him, right?

* * *

_Claire Bennet  
New York City Outskirts, 2008_

As Claire leant against the car window, her father- or Mr Bennet; a part of her still wasn't entirely sure what she should think of him as- driving back towards their old house to plan their next move, she tried once again to wrap her head around what had just taken place in Times Square.

Not the fact that she'd left pretty much all the other people with powers she'd ever met behind her to clean up the mess they'd made in the fight with Sylar alone; she doubted any of them even really knew much more than her name, so she didn't feel as obligated to help them deal with the aftermath. They had each other to help themselves through their reactions to that particular battle; she'd just have felt like a third wheel.

No, what really occupied her mind right now was the fact that, even after everything that had happened to her over the months since she'd learned what she was capable of… even after she'd literally _died _at least once… she'd gone straight into a combat situation in a desperate attempt to save the day, with no chance of it ever being acknowledged and almost less chance of knowing how she could help if she was there, for no other reason than that she'd felt like she had to go.

She'd had the chance to sit the whole thing out and go along to Nantucket with her biological family, but, when push came to shove, she'd left them and gone to the Square to help prevent a disaster, in a (On reflection) rather stupid attempt to save some of the only people she'd ever met who saw her as more than just a cheerleader or a prize to cling onto their arm. Even if they hadn't known about her or her powers, the people who'd dared to stand up to Sylar that night were like all good heroes where it counted; they'd had a power that put them above everyone else, and they'd used it to try and save the day for a world that would never know what they'd risked to protect it.

She'd had no idea _what _she could have accomplished, but, when faced with a choice of either living safe when she had the power to make any kind of difference, or dying trying to save others, she'd-

_No_.

She had to be honest with herself; she hadn't gone there to save the city.

She hadn't _wanted _New York to get blown up, of course, but that hadn't been why she'd gone to the scene of the Times Square battle.

She'd gone there to save _him_.

Peter Petrelli.

The man she knew as her uncle, but the man she thought of as anything but.

She knew she could be disgusted with herself- an older man was one thing, but how could she feel this way about somebody she was _related _to, for God's sake?- but she couldn't bring herself to think of something that felt so natural to her as _wrong_, no matter how hard she tried. From the moment he'd almost died just to save her life, having only met her that very day, Claire had been unable to stop thinking about him, unable to stop herself imagining what it would be like to feel his arms around her, what it would feel like to have him make love with her…

Even when every part of her screamed that she was sick for thinking of it, Claire couldn't stop herself from thinking of Peter like that.

In some ways, the fact that he was dead now almost made matters worse. At least if he'd been alive she might have been able to get over him as they parted company and got on with their lives; now that he was gone, she'd forever have locked in her memory that last picture of him as he stood in Times Square, begging her to kill him, not for himself, but to try and save the people who would be killed if he'd exploded.

Even when facing the possibility of death, he'd thought only of the people who would be saved by his sacrifice, rather than what would happen to him if she'd done what he'd asked her to do.

_God_… Claire sighed to herself, barely restraining a slight sob as she stared out of the window as the car reached the outskirts of New York city. _Why did he have to die like _that_? He didn't _deserve _to_-

She froze.

Had she just heard…?

… _Claire… Help… Love…_

She'd heard it.

"Dad, stop the car," she said, turning eagerly to look at her father.

"What?" Mr Bennet said, looking in confusion at her. "Claire-Bear, we're in the middle of-"

"Dad, pull _over_!" Claire insisted, staring intently at her father as she carefully didn't-quite-not-reach towards the handbrake; if she'd touched it, Mr Bennet might have survived the sudden halt, but he definitely wouldn't have been in a position to stop Claire doing whatever she wanted to do.

"OK, OK, I'm stopping," he said, raising one hand briefly off the wheel to calm his daughter as he turned the car into a nearby side road, parking as soon as he was a decent distance away from the main motorway. Fortunately it was relatively quiet out here- the explosion above New York must have attracted a great deal of questions; Claire guessed that people preferred to remain indoors until they knew what had happened-, so he could safely stop the car without having to worry as much as he might have done otherwise about other traffic.

As soon as the car had halted, Claire had opened her door and stepped outside, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to pinpoint the direction of the 'voice' in her head.

… _Help_… _Pain_…

Despite the clear agony present in the voice's tone- even in her own head-, Claire allowed herself a small smile as realised she was right.

It _was _Peter's voice.

He was alive.

Even after what he'd gone through in that final fight with Sylar… he was _alive_.

Claire didn't stop to explain; turning in the direction that Peter's 'voice' had come from, she began to run towards him. Whether he was tapping into the powers of that detective guy she'd met or it was something else about his powers that she didn't know about that enabled him to send her these 'messages', she didn't care; all that mattered was that he was _alive_…

She'd worry about the issues that might cause for them later; the important thing was that he was still conscious enough to 'send' her those brief calls for help. Once she'd reached him, she could help him deal with any injuries he'd sustained after Nathan had flown him out of Times Square, and take it from there.

A part of her vaguely registered that she was showing a remarkable lack of concern for Nathan- the man who was her actual _father_- but she pushed it aside; aside from a direct biological connection, she'd yet to have anything like a decent bonding moment with Nathan, while Peter had risked his life- Hell, he'd actually _died_- to save her from Sylar's initial attack when he hadn't even known her name.

If that didn't show he cared about what happened to her, she'd like to know what did.

As she saw the decent-sized crater before her, she quickened her pace, hoping and praying that she hadn't been too late- she could still 'hear' his 'voice' in her head, but that could have been the telepathic equivalent of a body expelling the last of its air or something-, and soon found herself standing at the edge of the crater, looking anxiously into the centre. As her eyes fell on Peter's slowly rising and falling chest, she allowed herself a brief grin of relief; at least she wasn't too late to save him.

Things were going to get _unbelievably _complicated from here on in, of course- the issues she'd been thinking about in the car were once again valid, just when she'd thought his apparent death would have ended them- but, as she approached his battered, bleeding body, his wounds automatically healing at a faster rate with each step she took towards him, she couldn't bring herself to care about that.

What she felt about him may be wrong, but right now, to see him breathing once more, she didn't care.

He was alive.

He might still need time to rest before he tried to move much - her power could only heal his physical injuries; she doubted it could help him automatically recover from the stress and fatigue he must be feeling after releasing enough power to blow up a _city_- but at least he was in a position to have that time.

"C'mon…" she grunted, crouching down to haul one arm over her shoulder and help him to his feet. For a moment, his head lolled to the side at an angle she knew for a fact heads weren't meant to turn, but she moved it back to its normal position with her other hand and the healing process had soon sorted the damage. "Let's get you somewhere to rest."

For a moment, as she carried his heavy form back to the car- she'd never been more grateful for the exercise she'd received at cheerleading practice; she'd probably have dropped him otherwise-, Claire entertained thoughts of having her father take Peter with them to wherever they were going from here, but she shook it off; he needed somewhere relaxed to rest and recuperate _now_, not miles along the road. After what she'd heard at their house, she wasn't about to let Peter's mother be in the same room as him- what kind of mother was willing to _allow _their son to explode?-, and, since she didn't know the addresses of any of the other people who'd been present at the Times Square battle (Assuming they even lived in New York), that meant only one option; the hospital.

_Yeah… that works_, Claire thought to herself, trying once again to avoid thinking too much about a topic that she doubted would never completely stop hurting. _Take him there, make sure he'll be all right, say goodbye, and then just… go_.

She might keep in touch with the Petrellis, of course, but she couldn't go on seeing Peter, day in and day out, and always be reminded of what she wanted more than anything but could never have.

_How could something that feels so right be so wrong_? she thought to herself, barely able to hold back her tears as she carried the man she loved back to the car.

There was no answer to her question.

All she could do now was get him to hospital and hope she could still find the strength to say goodbye to him when he woke up.

* * *

_Hiro Nakamura  
New York City, 2013_

Taking a deep breath, Hiro stepped out from behind the paintings, a small smile crossing his face as he saw Matt Parkman standing before him. Unlike the last time he'd encountered the policeman's future self, Matt was dressed casually in a shirt and jeans, a warm smile on his face as he looked at Hiro. There was a slightly guarded stance about him, but Hiro recognised it from the position that had been regularly assumed by his future self; this wasn't a man who thought _he _was a threat, but a man who was constantly alert for the _possibility _of a threat.

Whether that was a good sign or a bad sign regarding the treatment of people with powers in _this _future, Hiro couldn't be sure and would have to ask Matt about later; all that mattered to him right now was that he apparently _wasn't _going to be shot and hunted by this man for stuff he hadn't done yet this time, and that was all that mattered to him.

"Matt Parkman!" he smiled broadly, hurrying over to shake the hand of the telepath before him. "Good see you again!"

Then he looked curiously at Matt, as something the man had said occurred to him. "We friends?"

Matt chuckled. "You could say that; you gave me a few ideas about using my abilities that I hadn't considered using before," he said, reaching over to pat Hiro briefly on the shoulder, a friendly smile on his face, before his expression became slightly sullen as he looked around the room they now stood in.

"Why did you have to show up _now_…" he muttered, sounding as though he was talking more to himself than anything else.

"Why?" Hiro asked, looking in confusion at Matt. "What wrong with now?"

"Wha- oh, you heard me, huh?" Matt said, shaking his head slightly, a small smile crossing his face again. "Sorry, it's a habit I've picked up from being around my wife; since she can't read _my _thoughts, I started thinking out loud so she didn't feel like I had an advantage over her, and… well, I've started doing it around a few other people with powers as well-"

"Matt," Hiro repeated, looking critically at the policeman before him, refusing to get drawn into his blatantly obvious attempts to change the subject. "What. Wrong. With. Now?"

"Look, it's nothing, OK?" Matt said, placing a hand on Hiro's shoulder. "It's just… well, the New York 'team' you fought Sylar with? Niki, Peter, D.L., all those guys?"

Hiro didn't immediately recognise all of the names- Peter he knew, of course, even if he couldn't place Niki and D.L. right at this moment- but he nodded nevertheless; if things had gone bad for them

After Hiro's confirming nod, Matt shook his head slightly, his expression sad once more. "We… well, things haven't been great for them since the old days, to put it simply. Stuff happened in their lives, things didn't work out the way any of them might have wanted it to work out, and… it just hasn't been great for them, really."

Hiro's face fell.

"We… hated by America?" he asked, looking anxiously at Matt. He couldn't stand it if he was in _another _timeline where people with powers were actively prosecuted just because a few rogue elements like Sylar had given them all a bad reputation…

"What; you're afraid that we're all hunted down like we're Jewish people in Nazi Germany?" Matt asked, looking reassuringly at Hiro, clearly having picked up on his memories of the other future he'd visited. "Look, I _can _assure you that there is _nothing _like that going on here; we pretty much operate undercover as much as we can. Nathan's a member of Congress and manages to divert any attention from our activities if we do anything too big; we stay out of sight of camera crews, it generally all works out."

Turning around, Matt indicated the plaque on the wall behind him, a slightly saddened smile again on his face. "That's why this place looks a bit mucky; we don't want to attract too much attention to it, but, at the same time, we all figured Issac deserved more for the risk he took in continuing to paint and give us information than to just be forgotten, even if only we would ever know about his memorial."

"Good idea," Hiro said, nodding in approval at Matt as he gave the policeman a thumbs-up. "That why you here, huh? Pay respects?"

"Yeah, pretty much; I was just passing by and thought I'd see the old place," Matt explained, looking with a not-so-serious apologetic grin at Hiro. "Sorry to burst your bubble if you thought I was here for you with a message from… well, _you_."

Secretly, Hiro had to admit that he had wondered that- it would have been nice to know that his future self of this time was his _actual _future self rather than just another possible/alternate one; apart from Matt's awkwardness about giving him too many details, this time seemed to be OK- but he pushed it aside. If this _was_ going to be his future, he probably just didn't think this meeting was worth mentioning to anyone else, and if it wasn't, he'd just hope his actual future would turn out OK in the end.

"No problem," he said, giving Matt a smile and a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Fluke or not, good to have friend here."

"Yeah…" Matt said, nodding at Hiro with a slight smile; for a moment, his face appeared almost wistful, as though he was looking at something for the last time, but it passed before Hiro noticed it as Matt assumed a more serious expression. "Well, you'd better get back; don't want to risk you having an accident or something before you can get home."

Hiro nodded in understanding. He may have other questions he wanted to ask Matt right now, but, given Matt's powers, he most likely already knew them and had decided that it wasn't right to answer them. If he didn't _want _Hiro to know how things had turned out, than it was probably because there was nothing that could be done about them; what would have been the point in telling him about things he couldn't change?

He'd seen the future, and it was better than it had been; for Hiro, that was enough.

Closing his eyes, trying to avoid thinking about anything but home- the more focused he was right now the easier the warp would be-, Hiro focused his power inwards as he prepared to warp himself back to his home time…

_Wait_.

His eyes popped open in sudden realisation.

Something wasn't… _right _with the flow of Time around him.

Somehow, without knowing how he knew- beyond that it was probably some natural extension of his ability to manipulate time and space-, he _knew _that Time wasn't the way it should be at the moment.

Opening his eyes once more, rejecting any possibility of going back until he had some answers, he looked anxiously at Matt.

"Where am I?" he asked the police detective before him.

"Uh… you… got back to the past after this, if that's what you're asking…" Matt replied, confusion clear in his voice as he looked uncertainly back at Hiro. "Are you sure you're-"

"No, not where I _go_ from here; where am _I_ in _this _time?" Hiro asked, folding his arms and trying to look intimidating as he looked up at Matt. "Where is me of this year? Time feels screwy; only I bend it like that, and I know it not _this _me who did this. Where _am _me of _this _now?"

"Ah," Matt said, swallowing slightly as he looked up awkwardly before looking back at Hiro. "See, _that's _where it gets complicated; I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to tell you this, but if you're sensing something like _that _happening things aren't as simple as I'd hoped…"

"What you talking about?" Hiro asked, folding his arms as he looked at Matt, jerking his head towards the weapon he'd hung to his belt. "I warning you; I have _big sword_ if you lie _now_."

"Well, let me put it this way," Matt said, his expression grim as he looked at his friend. "_You're _dead, but your killer's… well, judging by what you said, it sounds like he did what he always does afterwards; we weren't sure at the time-"

Hiro's eyes widened in horror.

The implication of Matt's words was obvious.

"_Sylar_?" he yelled, interrupting Matt before he could complete his sentence. "_Sylar _killed me?"


	4. Should Feel Wrong, Feels So Right

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: This one's a bit shorter than the previous one, but I had to write it to establish some details of the future Hiro's currently visiting; the next chapter both continues to look at Peter and the other heroes in the aftermath of the Kirby's Plaza battle _without _the knowledge that Hiro will bring to them from the future, while also looking at Hiro and Future Matt as they try to track down Sylar and learn _why _he wanted Hiro's powers (As well as revealing the point of the Meredith thing in the first chapter, of course)

Seeds of the Future

_Claire Bennet and Peter Petrelli  
New York City, 2008_

When Peter opened his eyes, he was surprised to note that Heaven looked nothing like he was expecting (He assumed it was Heaven because the room was at least white, whereas Hell was generally regarded as being a very dark place); it looked like the average hospital room as far as he could tell.

Then he saw the young blonde woman sitting on a chair by his bedside, looking anxiously at him, and he knew that he wasn't dead; he was pretty sure that his paradise wouldn't have included the woman he loved looking that sad, and the general tone of his surroundings didn't fit the idea of this being Hell.

"C… Claire?" he whispered, looking at her in surprise. He had passed out after hitting the ground, fully accepting the idea that he was going to die, and yet here he was, alive (If not 'well' by any stretch of the imagination; his neck at least was still sore) and in hospital, as his niece (As much as he thought of her as anything but) sat opposite him. "Wh… what happened?"

Claire shrugged.

"I'm not too sure, really," she said, looking apologetically at him as she spoke. "My father- Mr Bennet, that is, not… y'know- and I were driving out of the city, but I… well, I 'heard' your voice in my head."

"In… your head?" Peter repeated, looking in confusion at the young woman before him. "But… how?"

"See, _that's _where the 'not too sure' bit comes in," Claire said, her wish for more clear answers for him evident on her face. "I thought you might have been tapping into that 'Matt' guy's powers- you know, the telepathy thing- but as far as I know he can only read thoughts rather than sending them…"

Peter shrugged slightly at that.

"Maybe he'll develop that ability later; I certainly had a better grasp of Issac's powers when I started using them than he did at the time," he said, by way of explanation. "Don't know how that worked, but it got the job done…"

Then he shook his head slightly, as though forcing himself back on track, and looked curiously at her once again. "Talking of Matt and that, where is everybody? And where am I?"

"We brought you to a hospital; you'd already healed the worst of your injuries, but my dad and I figured you needed somewhere to rest, and, well, I didn't think your mother's place was the best option," Claire explained. "Matt seems to have been taken here as well- it sounds like the bullets weren't exactly pretty, but he'll be OK-, and I saw that blonde woman who helped you tackle Sylar here with her family."

"What about Nathan?" Peter said, looking anxiously at his niece. "And Hiro?"

Claire shook her head.

"They've both just… vanished; I haven't heard anything about them yet," she said, looking regretfully at him. For a moment, se moved to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but she removed it almost before he'd had time to register its presence. "Do… do you remember what happened after you flew up?"

Peter paused for a moment, as though making sure he had his thoughts straight in his head, and then turned to look at her again.

"I… well, once, Nathan and I were up high enough, I threw him away from me and used his powers to put a bit more distance between the two of us," he explained; whether it was just Claire's presence or something more, he couldn't be sure, and didn't care. "I _think _I got him far enough away from me to escape the worst of the explosion; when you take into account that Nathan's already durable enough to cope with the friction of speeds that can break the sound barrier, he could probably handle being on the edges of the blast without too much damage."

"Well, that's good to know," Claire said, smiling slightly at him before she raised a curious eyebrow at him. "But how did you end up in that crater I found you in?"

Peter shrugged in an attempted casual manner.

"I hit the ground _really _hard," he said, wincing slightly as he reached up with one hand to tenderly touch his neck; even after his body had automatically mimicked Claire's powers to deal with the actual life-threatening part of the injury, it was still at least slightly sore. "I think I must've duplicated your powers when I hit the ground; I was too drained to really heal completely from what had just happened, but it must have been at least enough to keep me alive until you got there and I could use your powers properly."

"Glad I could help," Claire replied, reaching over as though she was going to touch his face before pulling her hand back once more, as though having only just realised what she was doing. "Anyway… I should go."

Peter blinked.

"What?" he said, looking in confusion at her. "Go where?"

"Away," Claire said, shaking her head slightly as she looked at him. "I don't know precisely where, sorry; my father- Mr Bennet; not Nathan, obviously- thought that it might be a good idea to get away from the company and start over."

"But… couldn't you hide here?" Peter said, looking curiously at her. "I mean, Nathan must have had contacts that could set you up with another identity if you need it; nobody else knows about… well, your father-"

"It's not that," Claire began, holding up her hand as she looked at him, the faint gleam of tears in her eyes as she looked at him. "I _want _to stay, Peter; it's just… I _can't_. It's… it's too _hard_... being here, with... you know..."

As the two of them looked at each other, no words passed between them, but words were unnecessary.

In that moment, both of them knew that the desires they'd felt ever since they first met each other were reciprocated, just as they both knew that nothing could ever be allowed to come of them.

_God_… Peter groaned, as he looked at the young woman sitting beside his bed. _Why, of _all _the people I could have fallen for, did I have to fall in love with my long-lost _niece_? I mean, I've heard of forbidden love, but _this?

There was no other way to say it; ever since he'd acquired his powers, his life sucked. If it wasn't him nearly destroying New York out of an inability to control one of the more 'volatile' powers he'd absorbed, it was the fact that he'd met the perfect woman for him, and he'd never be allowed to be with her because of some genetic link that neither of them had known about.

He knew that what he felt for her was wrong on so many levels; he _knew _that he shouldn't be thinking of his niece- more, his under-age, not-even-allowed-to-drink-yet niece- like this; he _knew _that he was going to burn in several different kinds of Hell for his thoughts…

But he also knew that he could no more ignore his feelings than he could have denied the existence of his powers; he could pretend they weren't there, but once he knew they existed, he almost _had _to acknowledge them.

From the moment that just the thought of Claire had allowed him to unlock a new level of his powers that not even he had suspected, Peter had known that he could never think of her as just a friend, and even the discovery of their biological relationship had done nothing to stop his feelings.

"Yeah…" he said finally, sighing slightly as he leant back into his bed, staring dejectedly at the young cheerleader before him. "You're right. It's… it's for the best."

"I know," Claire whispered softly. "But… before I go… just let me… have _this_…"

Then, with no warning, she leant forward, clasped the back of his head, and leant forward to briefly press her lips against his. It was so short that Peter didn't even have time to open his mouth to respond, but, in that moment, both of them felt an almost electric jolt shoot through their bodies, leaving them with a delicious tingling sensation that spread through their entire bodies, leaving them both almost desperate for more…

"_No_," Claire whispered, her heart almost breaking as she sharply pulled back from him, unable to stop herself feeling like she'd stabbed herself in the chest with Hiro's sword as she did so. "We… we _can't_."

"I… I know," Peter replied, looking back at Claire with a heartbroken expression on his face. "It's… it's not right."

Never mind that it had _felt _more right than anything he'd ever done in his life; the fact remained that he shouldn't think of his niece that way, and he definitely should _not _be enjoying the feel of her lips against his, in a kiss that far surpassed any he had shared even with Simone in the past.

Even as Claire turned and hurried from his room, her hands pressed tightly against her eyes to stop the tears that were about to start pouring from her eyes, neither of them could entirely accept the terrible hand that fate had dealt them.

How could a kiss that should have been so wrong in every way, feel so right that just the feel of their lips against each other leave them feeling more contented and satisfied than they'd ever felt after any other kiss?

As Claire's footsteps finally faded from the corridor outside the room, Peter, alone once more, turned around, pressed his face against the pillow, and began to softly cry for the dream that could never be.


	5. When Heroes Fall

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

Seeds of the Future

_Nathan Petrelli and Peter Petrelli  
New York City, 2008  
Three Weeks Later_

As Nathan walked into the dingy bar, the first thing that hit his nostrils was the smell of the place; he didn't think he'd ever smelt such a dirty bar in his life. For a moment, his eyes watered as he studied his surroundings, and then his eyes fell on the figure he was here to see and he shook his head sadly.

"_Peter_…" he groaned, as he walked over to where his brother was slumped against the bar, a glass of an as-yet-unidentified beer clutched in his hand as he took another drink from it. "What the _Hell _are you doing?"

"Ge'in' sloooshed; what'cha _think _I'm doin'?" Peter retorted, his bleary, bloodshot eyes looking up to take in the sight of his brother before him, a disorientated expression of self-loathing on his unshaven face; he had about a week or more's worth of growth around his chin. "Woulda thought you'da guessed _that_…"

Groaning in frustration, Nathan pulled up a chair and sat down beside his brother, ordering a beer to avoid attracting attention to himself as he looked pityingly at Peter. Ever since the near-miss with the New York explosion, Nathan had tried to establish a better relationship with his brother after coming so close to losing him, but Peter had never seemed that interested in talking to Nathan. Having learned something about the circumstances under which Claire and Peter had parted- thanks mainly to Matt Parkman the telepathic cop-, Nathan suspected that, on some level, Peter was almost _blaming _Nathan for being the father of the woman he'd fallen in love with. However, he tended not to think about it too much; the idea of his brother being in love with his long-lost daughter was disturbing enough as it was without delving too far into Peter's mental state at the moment.

Not that he blamed Peter for his feelings, of course; the way Nathan saw it, Peter hadn't even known about Claire until after they'd met each other, so it wasn't like he'd _knowingly _fallen for his niece, and he hadn't done anything about his feelings once learning the truth. So long as Peter didn't actually… _do _anything with Claire… he could accept how his brother felt so long as he didn't think about it too much and Peter managed to get over it.

Unfortunately, Peter was handling the problem anything but well, leaving Nathan increasingly worried about his chances of 'getting over it'. Despite the best efforts of Nathan, Heidi, and some of the other participants in the Kirby Plaza confrontation- Niki Saunders, D.L. Hawkins, Matt Parkman, and that 'Ando' guy who knew the sucker who'd claimed to be able to warp time and space-, Peter had generally tried to escape his problems only by getting so drunk that he wasn't thinking about them, subsequently leaving whoever was in the area to drag him back to his apartment for the night.

"Peter, you have _got _to get over this, OK?" Nathan said, placing a firm hand on Peter's shoulder as he forced his brother to turn and face him. "I did _not _fly you up into the sky, trash the very thing I've been working towards for the past few months, and end up crash-landing in the freaking _Hudson_- trust me, that was _very _cold- just so you could _drink _yourself to death."

"Hey, it'sh thish or I think about shaggin' your kid; woulda thought you'd _like _the one I picked," Peter pointed out, a slightly sarcastic grin on his face as he looked at Nathan before his expression fell once again. "Not tha' thish ish helping me _stop _thinking about shackin' up wi' her, but it stops me obsesssessing over it…"

"God, will you just _stop _this?" Nathan groaned, as Peter swallowed the last of his current bottle of beer. He nearly raised his hand as though he was about to order a new one, but Nathan grabbed his arm and forced it back down to the ground.

"You are _not _having any more of that to drink," he said, staring critically at his brother. "You're wasted enough as it is; I am _not _going to be responsible for you nearly killing somebody because your powers go out of whack or something."

Nathan wasn't entirely sure whether that could actually happen, but he saw no harm in reminding Peter of the possibility of it taking place; he just wished that Peter could lose enough control of his abilities to manifest something useful right now. Since Peter could easily mimic Claire's healing abilities, Nathan knew from what he'd read of Mohinder's studies since the explosion that alcohol shouldn't have that significant an effect on him; like Claire, Peter's body automatically healed to cope with the intoxication, albeit at a relatively slow rate compared to how he could handle normal injuries (Mohinder speculated that this was because the alcohol wouldn't actually _kill_ either him or Claire in the quantities people usually drank in; since it's wasn't actually fatal, their bodies didn't need to heal as rapidly as they might have done under other conditions). However, given that he so far wasn't doing anything but staring at Nathan with an increasingly dazed expression, it seemed clear to Nathan that his brother was either consciously surpressing Claire's powers or they just didn't work for him as well as they did for her. Since Peter had so far managed to use her powers to recover from everything from falling off a building to coming back from the dead after Sylar tried to cut his skull in half, Nathan was inclining towards the idea that he was consciously surpressing the ability to heal to stop himself from thinking about Claire.

"Sho wha' if my powers go screwy?" Peter retorted, staring at Nathan with a surprisingly focused gaze for somebody who looked like he was about to pass out and had more beer than blood currently flowing through his system. "I mean, sherioushly, who _cares _about a pervey old uncle who dreams about doing his own _niece_?"

"Peter, can you _stop _defining yourself by that?" Nathan groaned, as, having made sure nobody was paying too much attention to them right now, he reached over to haul his brother back onto his feet before directing him towards the door. "This kind of attitude is _not _helping you-"

"Wha' _else _can I do?" Peter asked, looking blearily over at Nathan as he spoke, although he at least continued to walk as he talked to his friend. "I'm in _love _wi' her, Nathan; I can't jus' _stop_ that!"

"Peter, you are _not_ in love with her-" Nathan began.

"_Don't _tell me it'sh jusht lusht, Nate; I don't _just _dream 'bout shcrewing her," Peter slurred as they left the bar; either Peter had already paid for the beer or the barman was occupied somewhere else at the moment. "It'sh the whole package for me; havin' a life… growing old… havin' _kids_…"

Staring at the beer bottle in his hand, Peter sullenly took another brief swig from it before tossing the now-empty bottle off to one side, staring at his hand as though he'd like to just cut if off. "I'm a fuckin' _mesh_… You shouldn't e'en care about what happensh to me… you should jusht let me die…"

"Glad to hear you admit it," a voice said from behind the Petrelli brothers, prompting both Peter and Nathan to halt in horror. "I've been waiting for the right moment to do this since that Japanese git stabbed me."

* * *

_Hiro Nakamura and Matt Parkman  
New York, 2013 _

"Well," Matt said, looking apologetically at his old friend, "we didn't _know _it was Sylar at the time you died; your body didn't show any of the usual signs of his victims."

"What?" Hiro said, looking in confusion at the former police detective. "What you mean, 'no usual signs'?"

"Look, you saw both Issac's body- Hell, Issac _painted _his own death often enough for all of us- _and _the body of that waitress with the eidetic memory you told us about; you _know _what Sylar normally did to his victims," Matt replied, as he pointed at one of the paintings in the gallery. It was tucked behind some of the others to avoid drawing too much attention to it, "When we found… well, your body- and that is a sentence I _definitely _didn't think I'd ever say to somebody-, you'd been stabbed in the back but had sustained no apparent head trauma; we had no reason to suspect there was anything unusual about your death beyond a random mugging or something like that, so we didn't bother to look too deeply into it."

"And now?" Hiro asked, looking critically at Matt as he spoke. "How you explain Sylar having time powers?"

"Well…" Matt said, looking slightly awkwardly around himself before he continued speaking, "let's say that he… acquired powers that make barriers pretty much non-existence, and leave it at that; you can probably guess what I mean."

He didn't need to say more; Hiro could all too easily guess what he must have meant by that comment.

Sylar had killed the man Hiro had helped rescue the people during that incident with the exploding car after he and Ando had originally departed Las Vegas; the man who, like Kitty Pryde, could 'phase' through solid objects.

With a power like that, all he would have needed to do was get up close to Hiro, reach into his head, and then _pull _his brain out of his head without leaving any traces of the process on the outside.

Not exactly a pleasant means of killing somebody, but certainly one that would get the job done without anyone _knowing _how it had happened, and Sylar was certainly sadistic enough to do it.

Hiro just hoped his future self had been dead _before _Sylar removed his brain; the thought that he might have been _alive _while something like that was happening to him wasn't an experience that he wanted to think about too much…

"But… how Sylar _alive_?" Hiro protested, trying to take his mind off the thoughts of his future self's death as he drew his sword, frantically indicating the weapon as he looked at Matt; before he went any further, he had to know the answer to that question. "I _stab _him in chest; he not have healing power!"

"No, but he _did _have an accelerated metabolism from a guy with super-speed he'd killed at one point," Matt replied, looking regretfully at Hiro. He knew what it had cost his friend to attack Sylar with the intention of killing him- even after everything that had happened since then, Hiro had always been haunted by the prospect that he'd killed people in the future he'd seen where the explosion had occurred-, and the fact that the most difficult decision he'd had to make had been for nothing could never sit well with him. "From what I've gathered in the occasions where I've been close enough to read his mind- my talent remains one of the few abilities he still hasn't acquired, thankfully-, he can't access the actual speed part of the equation because his body hasn't absorbed the part of that power that allows him to _process_ what's going on around or ahead of him at that speed- you get what I mean there, right."

"I think so," Hiro said, nodding in understanding. "He start running at superspeed in busy road, he not take in surroundings fast enough, so he might hit car in front of him before he knew he near it?"

"Precisely," Matt replied, giving Hiro a brief smile before he continued. "Unfortunately, just because he isn't using the speed itself doesn't mean the rest of his body hasn't adapted to use it. From what Mohinder and I could determine from a few blood samples we managed to acquire in one of our later fights with him, Sylar's metabolism is capable of accelerating under extreme conditions, such as when he's in a fight or using multiple abilities; it doesn't seem to be something he can actually decide to use, but it's enough to give him an extra little edge in a fight by heightening his reflexes to the peak of human training rather than the regular speed they'd be at otherwise. If he could use his speed, the metabolic acceleration would enable his body to properly pump all the blood and nutrients around his system at the speed that they'd need to be pumped at if he was going to keep his body moving at, say, the speed of sound, but as it is, all it allows him to do is occasionally heal from potentially fatal injuries as his cells regenerate faster than, say, yours or mine do. It's nowhere near as efficient as Claire's powers- if you did something to kill him instantly, like breaking his neck, he'd just stay dead- but it was enough to let him heal from the wound you gave him in the Kirby Plaza confrontation."

"Ah," Hiro said, nodding in understand. "I _see_…"

He groaned slightly as he sat down on the floor before one of the paintings, his head in his hand and his sword on the ground beside him. "Well, _that _suck."

Matt chuckled slightly; even after five years of seeing him grow, Hiro's habit of understatement still made him smile at times.

"Yeah, I know," he said, shaking his head as he sat down beside Hiro, placing a friendly hand on the Japanese man's shoulder before his expression became more resolved. "But look; if you _can _sense where Sylar is right now, we can use that to track him down. I've been working on something that can take him out, but it depends on me getting in close enough to him to use it in the first place. I've never been able to get close enough to him before- he's been able to stay underground pretty effectively; I think he absorbed the power to go invisible at some point, but I can't be sure- but if you can track him, I might be able to take him out before he can get away."

"Sound good," Hiro replied, nodding in approval as he stood up to look at his friend. "We need Peter Petrelli; only hero strong enough to-"

"Ah," Matt said, once again looking extremely uncomfortable at what Hiro had just said. "Unfortunately, that's not exactly… possible any more. Well, it's not really possible for _any _of the others involved in the Plaza battle- D.L. and Niki are both in Las Vegas, Nathan's in Washington, and Claire pretty much cut off all contact with the rest of us after she and her dad left New York- but with Peter… it's _really _not possible."

"What?" Hiro said, looking anxiously over at Matt, his face rapidly falling as he realised the implications of what the detective was about to say. "No… you not mean…?"

"I do," Matt replied, a sullen expression on his face as he nodded in confirmation. "A few weeks after the fight in Kirby's Plaza- he'd been feeling a bit dejected with some stuff he'd discovered prior to the fight, and it got kind of… on top of him in the aftermath, according to Nathan; he never told us exactly what it was-, Sylar confronted Peter and Nathan outside a bar. Peter told Nathan to get away and get help while he faced off against Sylar, but by the time we got there…"

He sighed sadly as he looked at Hiro. "We were too late."

* * *

_Peter Petrelli & Nathan Petrelli  
New York City, 2008_

Spinning around in the direction of the shockingly familiar voice, Peter's blood ran cold as he saw who was currently standing in the street before them, his hands glowing slightly as he mockingly studied the two men before him.

Sylar.

He didn't know how the guy could still be standing after their last battle- getting stabbed in the chest like that should have killed _anybody_- but, right now, he didn't care. Never mind the fact that he felt like the scum of the Earth right now; Sylar was _not _going to hurt his brother.

"Nathan," he grunted, removing his arm from his brother's shoulder as he fought through his alcohol-clouded mind to access Claire's healing powers- they wouldn't totally remove the hangover, but they might make it easier for him to think clearly-, "get out of here, and get some back-up; I'll do what I can, but extra help would be good."

"Are you _insane_?" Nathan hissed, as Peter turned to face Sylar, prompting a slight smirk from the former nurse.

"I've spent the last couple of weeks fantasizing about a life with a woman I'm related to despite the fact that just thinking about it makes me want to castrate myself; I think it's safe to say that I'm not _quite _all there any more," Peter retorted, his voice already sounding clearer as he prepared for this upcoming confrontation against his enemy. "Just get yourself to safety, OK? I can take this guy."

Before Nathan could even try to voice his objections, Peter had turned around and launched a telekinetic burst at Sylar, sending his old foe staggering slightly as the assault hit him.

"GO!" Peter yelled over at his brother, raising his hands as he glared at Sylar. "I can take him!"

With that, he jumped into the air and, channelling his brother's power of flight, charged towards Sylar, crashing into his foe and sending them both colliding into the wall behind them. Before Sylar could orientate himself enough to strike back, Peter punched him in the face, following it up with a series of increasingly fast blows to the face and chest with both hands.

Peter barely even registered that Nathan had apparently flown out of harm's way- there was no other explanation for the sudden _swoosh_ he heard, coupled with the lack of footsteps-; all that mattered, for him, was that he _finally _had a physical target for all the loathing and disgust that had been building up inside him for the last few weeks.

It was because of Sylar that he'd met the only woman he felt he could ever really love, only to learn that they could never be together. It was because of Sylar that Nathan had nearly died trying to prevent him from taking out all of New York. And, most importantly of all, it was because of Sylar that so many people were dead, solely because he couldn't take the pressure to be special and wanted to ensure that, having acquired a power, he'd go on to become the most powerful person on the planet, regardless of who he hurt.

Peter was _going _to finish this.

But, even as he landed blow after blow against Sylar, he knew it wasn't doing any real good. Sylar might not have Claire's healing powers, but he was still strong enough to take some serious punishment in a fight- the fact that he'd walked away from getting shot _and _stabbed was proof enough of that-, not to mention that he had experience in using whatever powers he possessed, while Peter was just using whatever came to him at a moment's notice; he'd been unable to really commit himself to any kind of training program following Claire's departure from his life, and his powers had fallen into disuse apart from some of the more basic ones like strength and flight.

Add on the fact that Peter had been rapidly approaching the fine line between being drunk and being unconscious mere minutes ago, regardless of how his borrowed powers coped with the alcohol that had so recently been in his system, and he pretty certain the odds in his favour were slim.

_But he tried to kill Claire_…

That fact, more than anything, drove Peter to keep fighting no matter how much pain he felt as Sylar tried to get back to his feet, his telekinesis apparently creating a low-level 'force field' around his body that lessened the impact Peter's blows had on him.

No matter how he felt about his own feelings for his niece at the moment, he would _not _allow Sylar to get away with hurting her.

As he lashed out again and again against Sylar, Peter subconsciously tapped into Hiro's time-freezing powers, slowing time around him; it was a slightly risky attack to attempt, he knew, but in his current state, he'd take any advantage he could get. As Sylar tried to orientate himself enough to fight back more efficiently, Peter raised his hands, generating a faint, firey glow around them as he launched a burst of heat at his foe…

Then, all of a sudden, Peter found Sylar's hand at his throat, breaking his concentration and causing Time to start flowing at a regular rate once again.

"Heightened reflexes," Sylar smirked at Peter's stunned expression. "It's an erratic little trick, and relatively useless for what it's _meant _to help me do- it only ever lasts for a few seconds at a time- but, every so often, it's worth it."

"Really?" Peter grunted, trying to ignore the pain in his throat as he glared at the man before him. "Then… try… and escape… _this_!"

Lashing out with one knee, he struck Sylar directly between his legs, sending his adversary staggering backwards, momentarily relaxing his grip on Peter's throat. As Sylar tried to strike back, Peter grabbed his arm, hurling him over his shoulder and into a nearby wall.

"You're _finished_, Sylar!" he roared, advancing on his opponent as he clenched his fist in preparation for the final strike. "You are _not _walking away from _this _one!"

"Oh… _really_?" Sylar chuckled, as he stared back at Peter, a thin trickle of blood from one corner of his mouth the only sign that he was taking damage in this fight as well. "Just one question… do you _want _to walk away from this one? You _are _the guy who wants to do his ­_under-age_ niece, after all; who's to say you _deserve _to keep going…"

Despite himself, Peter froze in shock.

Sylar _knew _about that?

For a moment, he was so distracted by the revelation that Sylar knew about something only Nathan had realised so far- he'd never mentioned it to the other superhumans he'd met, and he'd been careful to stay away from Matt ever since the Kirby Plaza showdown, making sure he knew precisely what he was thinking whenever the cop had been in his presence so he didn't slip up- that he didn't register what was happening in front of him until he suddenly felt an extremely powerful fist practically plunge _through _his stomach and out the other side.

As he stared back at Sylar in shock, his limbs pinned to the wall behind him by Sylar's telekinesis, the former watchmaker chuckled maliciously as he looked at the former nurse.

"All your power, and in the end, _I _won," he said, a smirk on his face as he raised his other hand. Noting Peter suddenly flinch- even when facing death no matter what else happened to him, the prospect of having his head cut open didn't appeal to him in the slightest-, Sylar chuckled slightly.

"Oh, don't worry; I'm not going to take _your _powers," he said, as though they were discussing nothing more important than what had been on TV the night before. "Why would I want to, anyway; I already _know _how to get others, and it's clearly _far _more efficient than your pathetic method of just _copying_ them."

Even as Peter strained against his adversary's grip on him, trying desperately to use his own borrowed telekinesis to force Sylar's fist out of his chest so that he could heal, a part of him knew that he wasn't trying as hard as he could have been, even as a part of him didn't care.

After all, as a part of him kept on reminding himself, Sylar had a point; did he really _deserve _to stay alive after the dreams he'd been having about Claire? Protecting her wasn't really an issue, either; she and her father had hidden themselves away after leaving New York, and if Bennet had half the connections he seemed to have access to, he wasn't going to leave a trail that Sylar could easily find again.

Whatever else happened here, Peter could be certain that Claire would be safe.

Even as he felt Sylar plunge another hand into his chest and begin to pull him apart, that fact was all that mattered to him.

Whether it be from homicidal maniacs or perverted uncles, Claire was safe.

She _had _to be…

Then, after a moment of all-consuming pain, Peter Petrelli knew no more.

* * *

_Hiro Nakamura and Matt Parkman  
__New York, 2013_

A saddened expression settled onto Hiro's face as he heard Matt's words, bowing his head dejectedly as he looked at the former policeman.

"Peter… died?" he said, looking forlornly at Matt.

"Yeah…" Matt replied, an equally sullen expression on his face at the thought. "Based on what he looked like when we arrived- 'we' consisting of me, Niki and D.L.-, Sylar just beat him to death in the street; didn't even _try _to take his power afterwards. Nathan had gone as fast as he could without causing a sonic boom, but by the time we got there, Peter was already dead; the best we could do was stop Sylar doing anything more to his body."

"Couldn't I done something?" Hiro asked, looking in confusion at his friend. "If I gone back to past-"

"You only arrived back in the present about a week or so after Peter's death- you later told that you hadn't been focusing too strongly on your destination when you'd left your starting point and so you'd arrived a bit away from your targer-, and you'd just taken two 'long-distance jumps'- for lack of a better analogy- between the past and the future; you were in no shape to try another temporal shift, particularly one that would have required the kind of fine control that a 'jump' like that would have needed," Matt explained, trying to look reassuringly at Hiro as he spoke. "If you couldn't be confident of getting it exactly right, there was no sense in trying; you could have arrived ages before Peter was meant to die and risked creating a rift by staying too long in a time where you already existed, or you could have arrived in time to save him but on the other side of the world from where he was. It was too great a risk with too little chance of actually getting anything from it; as time went on, we just had to accept the fact that we couldn't see what we could do to save him without causing large-scale damage to anything else on the planet."

"I… see," Hiro said, sighing slightly as he looked at the gallery around him, once again saddened at news of his failure.

Even if he hadn't actually experienced it taking place himself yet, it still hurt when he learned of an occasion where his powers hadn't been enough to save someone, regardless of whether it would have been possible for him to do it or not. He'd blown it with Charlie, even if he'd always treasure the time he'd managed to spend with her; the knowledge that he'd failed again…

Shaking his head, Hiro flexed his shoulders as his hand once again went to the sword at his side. Not even Superman could save everybody, and the Man of Steel had far more powers than he did; the sooner he acknowledge that, the easier it would be for him to cope with his losses, learn from them, and move on from there.

Right now, he had a villain to defeat, and he would defeat him. Sylar may have killed his future self, but this time, Hiro had the advantages of surprise and back-up, both of which his future self would have lacked when Sylar killed him.

"It'll have to be enough," Matt said, dispelling Hiro's momentary concerns before he'd even had the chance to voice them; whether Matt had read his mind or simply guessed what his concerns were, Hiro didn't know and didn't care. "Come on; let's go and see what this sucker's been up to with your powers."


	6. Defeat to Discovery

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated (Oh, and thanks very much to the reviewers of the last chapter; I was beginning to wonder if anybody had _anything _they wanted to say about this story)

Seeds of the Future

_Hiro Nakamura and Matt Parkman  
New York, 2013_

As Hiro stepped out onto the streets of New York, he had to admit that he was slightly disappointed at the apparent lack of change between his time and the present/future/whatever he should think of this time as. The cars were a bit sleeker, fashions were slightly different, and he didn't recognise some of the objects or brand names in the advertisements, but that aside he could have been back in his present.

"No public knowledge of powers?" he asked, looking curiously over at Matt. He had to admit, a part of him had hoped that the people of the real world would have been more open to the prospect of some people possessing powers than they'd been in the _X-Men_ comics- he'd always felt that humanity's generally hostile attitude towards mutants had been a bit exaggerated, to be honest-, but so far he wasn't seeing any evidence that his hope had been put to the test.

"Nah; we generally tried to maintain a low profile when using our powers," Matt replied, shrugging apologetically. "You compared it to some variation on one or two of the X-Men animated series once or twice; we decided it would be best to wait until we felt humanity as a whole was ready to know about us, or we did something so big that people couldn't _help _but know we were there, otherwise we ran the risk of starting a panic."

"And explosion?" Hiro asked, looking curiously at Matt. "How that explained?"

"Nathan's official explanation was that an independent firework display- I think he said it was for somebody's birthday or something like that- didn't work out quite as the people who'd organised it had expected; he managed to fly Peter up above the city before he could explode, so all people had to show that something had happened was a big boom that ended in a matter of seconds without doing anything," Matt explained, shrugging slightly. "He acknowledged that it had its holes, but it covered most of the problems; after all, nobody apart from us saw the battle with Sylar, Peter exploded so far above the city that it looked like little more than an elaborate firework, and with no damage to any building and no sign of any explosion but a big glowing boom above the city, it covered most of the essential details about that night."

"I… see," Hiro said, nodding in understanding once again. He had to admit, the 'official' explanation certainly worked; after all, if he'd learned anything from _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, it was that people had a knack for not seeing things that they didn't think could even exist in the first place. So long as they were provided with a credible-sounding alternative from a reliable source, they wouldn't look too deeply into what had taken place that night in Kirby Plaza…

_A night that he could avert if he arrived back early enough_…

"Don't," Matt said.

"Excuse me?" Hiro asked, turning to look at his friend.

"Don't start thinking about what you could do to change things back in the past; your future self spent a lot of time worrying about it, but, in the end, concluded that he couldn't do anything without violating the principles he wanted to uphold," Matt said, as he looked resolutely at Hiro. "He told me that he compared his situation to something he'd read in a _Flash _comic, apparently the guy had this friend who tried to make him go back in time to change things, but he refused to take the easy way out because he had to learn how to cope with loss and we can't just rewrite history every time we screw up, or something like that…"

"Ah; origin of second Zoom!" Hiro said, smiling briefly as inspiration struck him, before his face fell once again as he took in the implications of Matt's statement. "So… can't save Peter because it just for _me_… or _us_… rather than world…"

He groaned as he leaned against the wall with one hand, his head bowed, his sword concealed under his coat. "Being the hero really _suck _at times."

"Hey…" Matt said, reaching over to give Hiro a friendly pat on the shoulder. "I'll tell you what I told… well, you; don't beat yourself up about it. You saved who you could with your abilities; Peter wouldn't want you to blame yourself up for not being able to save _him_ that night."

"Doesn't mean it not suck," Hiro said, as he continued to stare dejectedly at the wall before he stood up straight once again, flexed his shoulders slightly, and turned to look resolutely at Matt. "Well, if not save Peter, I stop his killer; let us go and kick some ass!"

"I'm all for _that _idea, my friend," Matt chuckled, placing a hand on Hiro's shoulder as he grinned at the Japanese ex-cubicle-worker, before his expression once again became more professional and resolute. "Now then, let's see what you can do about finding this son of a bitch, huh?"

Nodding in agreement, Hiro closed his eyes, the better to concentrate, and reached out as best he could, trying to sense the same distortion in the space/time continuum that he'd detected when he'd initially tried to use his powers in this time.

For a moment there was nothing there, and then he felt it; a faint disturbance, registering in his mind as being almost like a soft breeze, except that he couldn't actually feel it on his face. It was like… a _mental _breeze, for lack of a better term, from the direction where Sylar was currently located.

Opening his eyes, he looked over at Matt with a slight grin on his face.

"I have him," he said, the smile fading as he reached over to grab Matt's arm, resolution taking over his expression as he looked at his new/old friend (No language on Earth seemed to possess the necessary tenses for talking about time travel). "Hold on; I take us there."

Matt blinked.

"Wait a minute; _you'll _take us there?" he said, looking uncertainly at his friend. "Hiro, not that I doubt you or anything- Hell, you teleported me and the others around often enough over the last few years- but you're still learning about your powers at this point in your life; can you _guarantee _that you'll get us to where Sylar is _now_, rather than arrive there… I dunno, six months later?"

"I have target," Hiro stated grimly as he looked at Matt. "He beacon of temporal distortion right now; odds of me missing him are as unlikely as odds of missing Empire State Building when standing right in front of it. My powers call to… _his _powers like magnet; recognised it when in other future, but too scared then to try anything, and paid price for it with other me's death."

With those words, Hiro's eyes narrowed as he stared at Matt, his expression becoming even more grim than it had been prior to this point. "What I need to know is, if I get us there, _can _you stop Sylar?"

For a moment, Matt was too shocked to reply- the sheer intensity of Hiro's gaze was so like that of his now-deceased future self that it was almost uncanny-, but, after a moment's pause, he nodded in acceptance.

"Yes," he said, as he looked at Hiro. "If you think you can get us to him… so long as you buy me a little time to prepare myself, I can put him down once we're there."

Smiling gratefully at him, Hiro closed his eyes, concentrated, focused his mind on the 'beacon' that was his powers, praying that his abilities matched his confidence…

* * *

As he opened his eyes, Hiro grinned broadly as he saw the now-familiar form of Sylar standing in front of him and Matt. Currently clean-shaven and dressed in a business suit- as opposed to the more casual clothes and stubble he'd possessed when the two of them had confronted each other in the past-, Sylar was currently standing in the middle of an old apartment that seemed to have been abandoned by its previous tenant, looking around himself as though he was somewhat puzzled by something. As his eyes settled on the two new arrivals, the puzzled expression shifted to one of total shock as his eyes settled on Hiro. 

"_You_?" he yelled incredulously.

"Me," Hiro replied resolutely, drawing his sword as he glared at his old enemy. "Consider me… payback."

Before Sylar could react to that, Hiro had charged forward, taking advantage of his foe's momentary shock, and slashed at Sylar's chest, sending the power-stealing serial killer staggering backwards in shock from the attack.

"You killed me once," the Japanese man said, clasping his sword tightly in his hands as he prepared for his next attack. "You _not _doing so again."

As Sylar raised his hands to defend himself- presumably about to use his telekinesis-, Hiro lashed out once again, this time scratching one of Sylar's hands before the ex-watchmaker could strike back. Hiro vaguely registered that Sylar's accelerated metabolism seemed to be doing its job pretty efficiently- the cut was already starting to heal itself at a more-than-human rate-, but he was definitely nowhere near as good at healing as Claire was. So long as he stayed on the move and kept Sylar's focus on him, Hiro had faith that Matt would come through for him…

Then Hiro found himself flying back through the air once again, one of Sylar's hands outstretched as he used his telekinesis against the time-bending ex-cubicle-worker, and he was forced to react quickly.

Knowing that he couldn't allow his instincts to take over- if he teleported randomly again, Matt would almost certainly be killed or at least badly injured before he could get back-, Hiro desperately froze time in his immediate vicinity, instinctively simulteously slowing his body's rate through the air as he tried to right himself so that the impact would hurt less.

Even with all his concentration, Hiro was only able to slow his 'fall' through the air by a few seconds- evidently, even on instinct, his powers couldn't affect his _own _perception of time to any significant degree-, but it was still slow enough for him to orientate his 'flight' so that he hit the wall behind him feet-first while leaving Sylar and Matt frozen in their current positions. For a moment, Hiro simply stood on the wall, staring at the sight in front of him- Sylar's hand outstretched as Matt desperately concentrated on something- but then he stood back up and stared resolutely at the sight in front of him.

He had a friend to save- even if he hadn't experienced most of their history together at his current point in time, he had no reason to believe Matt was lying- and a homicidal maniac to stop; he could focus on thinking about this latest aspect of his powers later.

If he was going to put down Sylar for any decent length of time, now was as good a moment as any to attack him. Drawing his sword, Hiro stared resolutely at his adversary, aimed for Sylar's chest, and then charged towards the powerful killer, ramming the blade through his adversary even as he started the flow of time once more. As Sylar's eyes widened in rage and pain from the sudden impact of the blade in his chest, Hiro grinned slightly at the man in front of him.

"Deja-vu?" he asked, trying not to think too much about what he'd just done; no matter what Sylar had done, a part of Hiro would _never_ be entirely 'comfortable'- that term could ever apply in this kind of situation-with the idea of stabbing somebody with the intent to kill them, no matter what he'd done to deserve it.

Before Sylar could make any kind of reply, he suddenly reeled back, clutching at his head as though somebody had suddenly driven a nail into his brain. As Hiro watched the sight before him in confusion, Sylar fell backwards, the sword still in his chest as he clutched at his head like he was trying to stop something from breaking out of it, and then he collapsed to the ground, still breathing but clearly unconscious.

"Matt?" Hiro asked, turning to look inquiringly at the telepathic cop, who was staring at the killer on the ground with an extremely focused expression on his face. "What just happen?"

"Telepathic pulse…" Matt grunted, breathing heavily as he looked up at Hiro. "Basically made him relive a bunch of memories at once… made him pass out from the-"

He paused.

"Wait a minute…" he muttered, turning to look in confusion at the body lying on the floor before him. "That doesn't make sense…"

"What?" Hiro asked, looking in confusion at Matt. "What not make sense?"

"The memories I made him relive… they include memories of meeting Nathan and Claire a few _hours _ago," Matt explained, as he looked up at Hiro, his uncertainty evident as he looked between this past version of his friend and the unconscious Sylar. "But… they looked like they did back _then_. These days Nathan's got a beard, and Claire… well, she dyed her hair brown to stay undercover… but in Sylar's meeting with them, they looked like they did…"

His eyes suddenly widened, the implication hitting both him and Hiro simultaneously.

"_In the past_…" they both breathed softly as they stared at Sylar's body, the implications of that statement evident.

"He used my powers to time travel?" Hiro said, looking fearfully up at Matt. "What did he _do _back there?"

"I don't know…" Matt muttered, shaking his head as he looked back at the villain before them. "But I _do _know how we can find out."

Crouching down beside Sylar, Matt placed one hand on the man's forehead, and then glanced up at Hiro, his other hand outstretched. "Crouch down beside me."

"Uh… why?" Hiro asked bemusedly, even as he did as his friend had asked.

"I've been working on something that allows me to broadcast other people's thoughts directly into somebody's mind," Matt explained, as he indicated "I need to be in physical contact with both of them for it to work, but essentially I kind of turn myself into a 'conduit' for one person's memories and send them to somebody else, allowing them to see what I've discovered in their memories."

"Ah," Hiro said, nodding in understanding. "Like 'Bridging of Minds' from _Star Trek: Voyager_, huh?"

"Uh… yeah, sure," Matt confirmed, before he turned his attention back to Sylar and placed his hand on Hiro's forehead. "Now then, I need you to relax; this is going to feel… odd."

Hiro only just had time to register that Matt had closed his eyes and leant his head back when the world suddenly went white.

* * *

AN: OK, if anyone feels Sylar went down a _bit _too easily in this chapter, there are two reasons for that; firstly, he wasn't _expecting _Hiro to show up- he _has _killed the guy, after all- so the shock of him being there threw him off a bit, and secondly...

Well, you'll find out the second reason next chapter; all I'll say is, you'll find hints as to what's actually going on with Sylar in the first chapter, but you'll have to wait and see if you want the full explanation


	7. Flashback: Peter VS Sylar, Take One

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

Seeds of the Future

Hiro Nakamura, Matt Parkman and Sylar New York, 2013 

As the white 'light' faded from Hiro's eyes, he found himself standing beside Matt in the middle in a New York street, watching as Peter Petrelli walked along the street, his arm casually slung around Claire Bennet's shoulders as they walked.

"Huh?" Hiro asked, looking around himself in confusion. "What going on here?"

"We're reliving some prominent moments in Sylar's memories from the moment they… well, 'contradict' what I remember happening in the past," Matt explained, from a position just slightly behind Hiro. "I was just going to show you his recent memories relating to his meeting with Claire and Nathan, but a more in-depth scan revealed that there's more going on here than I initially thought, so I… well, essentially I decided to show you a bit more."

"So… what odd about this?" Hiro asked, indicating the sight in front of him. "If this _is _memory, what so wrong about them spending time together?"

"_That_," Matt said, pointing at Peter and Claire as they suddenly leaned towards each other, their lips briefly meeting in a soft but clearly passionate kiss. "They _never _had that kind of relationship; after the Kirby Plaza battle, Claire had Peter brought to a hospital when she found him after he crash-landed outside New York, and left for… somewhere- I never found out where- after saying goodbye to him."

"Yeah; still not getting what wrong with that?" Hiro said, looking in confusion at Matt. "Age an issue, but-"

"Didn't you know?" Matt asked, looking in surprise at Hiro. "Claire's Peter's _niece_, Hiro."

Hiro's eyes widened in shock.

"His _niece_?" he yelled, looking in shock at the ex-nurse and the ex-cheerleader; whatever else he'd been expecting, he'd never expected to learn that two people who'd saved the world would actually knowingly engage in _incest_. "But… but how _that _happen; Claire not _raised _by Nathan!"

"Long story short?" Matt replied, shrugging slightly as he indicated the two people before them. "Peter's brother Nathan- you know, the flying guy- had her with an old girlfriend when he was younger, but he thought she and her mother had died in a fire; the mother had the ability to control fire and her powers were a bit out of control, from what I gather. The end result was that Nathan never even told Peter that he'd ever _had _a niece-"

"Ah, _there _you are," a voice suddenly said from off to one side, breaking into Matt and Hiro's conversation even as it prompted Peter and Claire to jump apart and look at a point somewhere behind Matt and Hiro.

Spinning around in the direction of the voice, Hiro was shocked to see Sylar standing in front of his two… friends (For lack of a better term; he may not have spent much time with Peter, and he hadn't even met Claire personally, but after they'd all worked together to save New York, he felt that considering them 'acquaintances' was an inadequate description), his arms spread as though he was preparing to attack them. At the sight of the ex-watchmaker, Hiro instinctively reached for his sword, but Matt placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"There's no point in trying anything," Matt said, looking at Hiro with a slight smile on his face. "As much as I appreciate your desire to help everybody, this is only a memory of Sylar's that we're reliving; you can't influence its outcome no matter how hard you try. As far as everyone else here is concerned, we're not even here; all we are is invisible observers."

Looking back at the scene before him, Hiro could see that Matt was right; the two of them couldn't have been more than a few feet away from Peter and Claire, but the ex-cheerleader and ex-nurse were looking directly at Sylar rather than at the two of them.

"What; you _survived _getting stabbed like that?" Peter asked, looking in frustration at Sylar. "What does it take to kill you; do we have to rip you _apart _before you stop coming back?"

"Unfortunately, you're not going to have the chance to find out," Sylar stated grimly as he stared at Peter. "So, you stopped yourself going 'Boom', hmm? Too bad for you; at least that might have been relatively quick."

Raising his arms, Sylar chuckled slightly as his hands began to glow with the same kind of glow Peter had been giving off when Hiro had arrived at Kirby Plaza to try and stab Sylar.

"I can tell you something for nothing," the villain stated, as he stared at Peter. "You're _not _going to die quickly this time around."

"Really?" Peter retorted, raising his own hands in an almost mirror image of Sylar's current stance, the radioactive 'energy balls' appearing in his hands as well, his entire body language radiating a confidence and certainty in the use of his powers that Hiro had only seen in the Peter he'd met in the future where the bomb had gone off. "I'd like to see you try."

With that, the two men launched the 'balls' at each other, each attack sending its target staggering slightly but little else.

_No… _Hiro realised, as he fully processed what was taking place in front of him. _Something _did _happen…_

Specifically, Sylar appeared to have been slightly burned by the attack- his face and the palms of his hands appeared to be blistered, as though he'd been standing too close to a fire-, while Peter's wounds, although identical, were healing already, although Hiro was prepared to bet that Claire's close proximity to him had something to do with that.

"This doesn't make _sense_…" Matt muttered, as Peter 'jumped'- for lack of a better term- into the air and flew towards Sylar.

"Sorry; what not make sense?" Hiro asked Matt. "I feel like I start watching movie in the middle right now; you know more about plot than I do."

"Well, according to Sylar's memories, this confrontation took place on the night that Peter was killed- when he confronted Peter after the guy had been spending some time in a bar-, but nothing else is even _close _to being what it was that night," the former cop explained, looking back over at the ex-cubicle worker. "Claire was nowhere near Peter when he died, the guy had just been practically _dragged _out of a bar by Nathan after drinking himself to the point of unconsciousness- he looks _way _too focused for someone who was apparently having difficulty stringing a coherent sentence together by this point-, and he definitely _didn't _have this kind of control over his powers. He could manifest a couple of the more personal ones like healing and invisibility easily enough, but he could _never_ control Ted's ability to generate radiation that easily; every time he used it he nearly blew himself up shortly after he so much as tried to do something with it."

Looking back at the fight before them- Peter and Sylar currently grappling at close quarters, each with a hand around the other's wrist, as Claire watched from off to the side as though waiting for an opportunity-, Hiro could see what Matt meant; the Peter before them definitely did _not _seem as though he was having trouble keeping his radiation powers under control.

Indeed, as Peter suddenly turned invisible, followed by Sylar doubling over as though something had just struck him in the stomach, it looked like he was in remarkably good control of all the abilities he'd acquired over the month since he and Hiro had first spoken, rapidly shifting between one power after another as he lashed out at the ex-watchmaker. One minute he had sent Sylar flying with telekinesis, the next he had used a radiation burst to leave a long burn along one of Sylar's sleeves- if Sylar hadn't moved he would have quite possibly lost a limb of some kind-, then he had used what appeared to be superhuman strength to send the sucker flying off towards a nearby building, Sylar only managing to stop himself at the last minute.

"You're good, I'll give you that," he said as he stared at Peter, clearly maintaining a brave front despite the damage the ex-nurse had clearly already managed to do to him; despite the near-invulnerable appearance he'd always given off whenever Hiro had seen him, the man in front of him was already significantly bruised, and he was currently clearly favouring one leg over the other.

"But me?" Sylar continued, glaring at Peter as he raised his own hand to mimic Peter's current stance. "I'm _far _better. You don't deserve your power, Petrelli, and it shows; you deny what could give you _real _power."

Before Peter could react, Sylar had raised his hands and flexed his fingers, pointing directly at Peter.

"I don't," he said coldly, his eyes suddenly narrowed in concentration.

As Hiro and Matt washed, Peter flew upwards a few feet, the wall behind him suddenly collapsing into a liquid form of some kind, and Sylar was suddenly sent reeling by a kick to his back from Claire.

"Sorry, _Sylar_, but I'm not letting you get away with _that _again," Claire yelled at Sylar, as the serial killer turned to glare in her direction. "You think you can just… I dunno, try to turn Peter into liquid and nobody'll care? _Think again_!"

Before Sylar could reply to that, Claire had stuck him in the face with a powerful uppercut, sending him staggering backwards momentarily. Before he could regain his balance to try and strike back- although what he could have done is another matter entirely- Peter had suddenly charged forward and grabbed Sylar by the throat, pinning him to the wall as he glared at the watchmaker-turned-serial-killer.

"Y'know, Sylar," he said, as he glared scathingly at his adversary, once again demonstrating the confidence in himself that Hiro had only ever seen in his scarred future counterpart, "if things had turned out differently, a part of me might have felt a bit sorry for you. You didn't _ask _to become like this; you had a whole lot of pressure put on you to be 'special', and you just couldn't take it when you found something that made you that way only to learn how relatively _useless_ it was."

Then his eyes narrowed as he tightened his grip on Sylar's throat, raising his other hand as he stared at his adversary. "But then you tried to kill the woman I love- to say nothing of killing a guy that I feel could have really become a friend if we'd had the chance-, for no other reason than that you wanted more power… and that's even _before _you take into account all the other people you've killed. They had done _nothing _to hurt you- hell, some of their powers were something totally harmless; what is a girl with a perfect memory meant to _do _to you?- but you killed them, solely because you couldn't take the idea that you'd be just 'one of the crowd'."

"They don't _deserve _their powers!" Sylar retaliated, glaring at Peter. "I _knew _what they had; half of them were _terrified _of what they could do! I did the world a _favour _by getting rid of them-"

"You played God, Sylar," Peter stated coldly, interrupting his enemy as he raised his other hand while staring critically at the man before him. "You think you deserve your powers just because you understood what was happening to them?"

"Do _you_?" Sylar retorted, glaring scathingly at Peter. "You're just like me, after all; all you can do is _take _other's powers-"

"He _shares _their powers," Claire retorted, looking coldly at Sylar from where she stood, a short distance behind Peter. "You _steal _them; there's a big difference."

"Exactly," Peter said, as he nodded slightly while staring at Sylar, as though having come to a decision. "You _stole_ powers from innocent people who didn't do anything to you; I _share_ the powers of my friends."

As he stared coldly at Sylar, Peter allowed himself a slight smirk as he glared at the man who'd killed Isaac Mendez.

"We are _not _alike, Sylar," the former nurse stated coldly. "You wanted to be special? I don't pretend to know everything, but I _do _know you don't deserve to do it this way."

As Hiro, Matt and Claire- in the memory- watched, Peter plunged the tips of his fingers _into _Sylar's head- literally; he must have been using D. L.'s intangibility power-, held the fingers there for a few moments, wiggling them about inside his foe's skull, and then pulled them out, leaving Sylar to collapse to the ground unconscious.

After a moment's pause, Hiro was surprised to see that the 'memory' was still playing out in front of them, despite the fact that the person whose memory it was mean to be was unconscious.

"Huh?" he said in confusion as he turned to look at Matt. "What happening; how can Sylar remember _this_?"

Matt shrugged.

"Got me there, unfortunately; I haven't a clue," he said, as Claire walked uncertainly forward to get a better look at the unconscious form of the man who'd killed her former best friend. "My best guess is that it's a combination of some of Sylar's stolen abilities- most likely some combination of Isaac Mendez's ability to paint the future and Charlie Andrews's superb memory giving him a kind of extra-sensory perception that allows him to process what's going on around him at all times on some level or another. Anyway, I'm pretty confident it's an accurate depiction of what happened; let's just keep watching."

Turning back to the scene before them, Matt and Hiro watched as Peter stepped back slightly, allowing Claire the opportunity to look at Sylar's unconscious form for a few moments, before she stood up and turned to look back at Peter.

"Is… is he…?" she asked, uncertainly indicating Sylar's body.

"Dead?" Peter replied, shaking his head reassuringly. "No, he's still alive; I just… well, the best term is that I 'shut down' the part of his brain that allows him to access his abilities."

Noting Claire's surprised expression, he shrugged. "Hey, according to Mohinder's notes, Sylar's original power was a natural ability to know how things worked just by looking at them; all I needed to do was access that power out of all the others, work out what I needed to do to render him powerless _without _killing him, and take it from there."

"Oh," Claire said, looking back at Sylar before she turned to look at him once again. "So… his powers are gone?"

Peter nodded. "They're as good as gone, anyway; I disrupted the part of his brain that allows him to consciously control his abilities," he explained. "His powers are there, he just can't use them."

Sighing as he looked down at Sylar, he nevertheless chuckled slightly, one corner of his mouth turning up in a slight smile as though at some memory. "God… when I think of some of the stuff I just said to him…"

Claire shrugged. "Hey, you wanted to make a point," she said reassuringly, as she walked over to wrap an arm around Peter and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "You were a bit long about it, but so what? You gave him a chance to try and see sense, he still wanted to kill us, so you took him out… _without _killing him."

Reaching up to take hold of Peter's chin, Claire turned his face to look at her and leaned up to kiss him.

"You're not like him, Peter," she said, shaking her head resolutely as she looked at him. "Sylar would kill even if he didn't 'have' to; you don't."

After a moment's silence, Peter smiled as he turned back to look at her.

"You always know what to say, don't you?" he said, grinning at the younger woman.

Claire shrugged. "I had a good teacher," she said, leaning up to kiss him briefly once again before turning her head to look at the unconscious killer before them, her head resting against Peter's shoulder.

As Claire stared down at Sylar, a slightly satisfied expression on her face- clearly, like Hiro, she considered this fate to be just what Sylar deserved for his actions; normal once again despite all his efforts to make himself 'special'-, the world around them…

Blurred.

It was the most basic comparison Hiro could think of. In more detail, however, it reminded him vaguely of what he'd heard about how old science-fiction television shows had filed something fading away by filming one version of the background with it there and one where it had been taken away. He could still see the scene of Peter and Claire embracing each other as Sylar lay unconscious before them, but there were other images in there, apparently featuring Peter and Sylar facing off on their own, with Sylar apparently doing far better than he had in the other memories; indeed, Peter actually appeared to be barely holding his own in this fight, whereas last time he'd easily dominated Sylar in a physical confrontation.

"Huh?" Hiro said, as the newer 'images'- as they were simply projections of Sylar's memories, they couldn't be considered anything but images- began to fade away once again, only to briefly sharpen in intensity even as he watched them. "What… what _happening _here?"

"Yeah; as to that, I've really got no idea," Matt muttered, as the two of them studied the 'secondary' images appearing around them; for a moment, Hiro thought he saw Sylar with a fist plunged _into _Peter's chest, but the image rapidly faded to be replaced by the ex-watchmaker's unconscious body as Peter and Claire looked scornfully down at him. "I'm still able to pick up what I've been showing you so far as the 'main' memory- what Sylar definitely remembers happening during this confrontation- but there's… something _else _there at the same time. It's almost as though Sylar's got _another _memory of how this turned out that's trying to… overwrite this one, but it's only just gotten started at doing whatever it's been doing to his head, and it's affecting his memory of this and what happened afterwards. I'm pretty sure we can still see what was there originally- what I've come here to show you, really- before everything's 'rewritten' to accommodate these… other memories."

"Huh?" Hiro said, looking in confusion at Matt. "But… but how could _that _happen? Why would somebody want to change _Sylar's _memory from _now_?"

"I've got a _couple _of ideas what's responsible for this, but I'd prefer to see what else happened in Sylar's old memories before I say anything," Matt explained, as he raised a hand and waved it slightly. "OK, next memory that doesn't _quite _fit what I remember is this…"


	8. Flashback: Escape and Revelations

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

Seeds of the Future

_Hiro Nakamura, Matt Parkman and Sylar  
New York, 2013 _

After another brief 'flash' of what Hiro's mind could only interpret as 'white light', he found himself standing in a cell of some kind, looking in surprise at Sylar as he sat in the cell looking resignedly at the wall before him.

"Where we now… in memory, anyway?" Hiro asked, looking inquiringly at Matt.

"About a couple of years after that last fight between Sylar, Peter and Claire; Sylar's been sent to jail for murder thanks to the FBI case against him, but nobody knew anything about his powers, so he was just stuck in a mental asylum," Matt explained, as he looked back at Hiro. "Apparently, with Peter having 'neutralised' his powers during that last fight, Sylar wasn't able to provide any proof of his story about killing people with powers, so he was sent to a mental asylum to try and get some help in dealing with his delusions."

"Ah," Hiro said, as he looked at Sylar's past self, the former watchmaker sitting behind the glass wall as he stared blankly at his hands, flexing his fingers thoughtfully. "And… nobody ever thought to tell them that he _wasn't _crazy?"

Matt shrugged. "If this is real, somehow- and I still have no idea how that could happen, so don't ask me-, I'm prepared to bet that Peter and the others figured that, with Sylar powerless now, none of them could see much point in telling people the truth and getting them in a panic about people like us when there was no real reason for it," he explained, as he continued to study Sylar as their old foe simply stared at his hands. "Unfortunately, as we're about to see, that theory wasn't _entirely _accurate…"

As Hiro watched the scene before him, he quickly realised what Matt was referring to; a small, faint glowing of energy was flickering in each of Sylar's hands, as though it was thinking about becoming larger but wasn't sure if it wouldn't be safer remaining at the size that it was at present. For a moment there was another momentary 'blur' of the image around them as something else tried to surround them- it looked vaguely like Sylar sitting in a bar drinking a glass of beer- but it soon vanished and returned to the original image of Sylar in the cell.

"Don't ask me how his powers came back; not even Sylar's entirely sure about the answer," Matt said, before Hiro could voice his original question; both of them knew that it was pointless to wonder about those 'blurs' until they had more information. "Best guess is that he'd just absorbed so much power that it's practically impossible to turn it all off for good; eventually _something's _going to work out a way to 'turn itself back on', for lack of a better expression."

"Ah," Hiro said, nodding in understanding. "Well, that make _sense_… kind of…"

Before the two men could exchange any further words on that topic, Sylar had stood up and launched a burst of energy at the door in front of him. It was a short spark, lasting no longer than a few seconds, but it was long enough for the blast to destroy the lock on the door before the ex-watchmaker. Striding towards the door, he lashed out with a powerful kick that caused the door to fly open, subsequently walking out of the cell after a moment's pause.

"He wanted to make sure nobody was coming towards him," Matt explained as he glanced over at Hiro. "Super-hearing; it's one of his more passive powers, which is probably one of the reasons it's one of the ones he got back first."

As Hiro watched, Sylar strode out of the police station, his hands raised as he studied his surroundings, constantly on the look-out for somebody who might try to stop him. Whether he was using his super-hearing to avoid encounters with officers or he was just in a part of the building that wasn't visited that often, Hiro didn't know, but Sylar was soon standing in front of a wall at the end of a corridor, the window a few feet above the ground clearly showing the outside world.

"Not exactly a perfect getaway," Sylar mused to himself as he raised his hands once more, "but it'll do for the moment."

With that, he launched another brief, powerful burst of energy at the wall. It didn't actually blow a hole in the wall- Hiro speculated that this was because Sylar was still unable to generate that much power at the moment- but it did create enough cracks in the wall for Sylar to break a decent-sized hole in it with a well-placed kick. With that, the ex-watchmaker took one last glance around, bent down slightly, and began to slowly edge his way through the hole before him, taking him out of the prison and free to claim even more lives in his quest for more power…

"He won't," Matt interrupted, breaking into Hiro's train of thought.

"Huh?" Hiro said, looking in confusion over at Matt. "What you _mean _he won't; Sylar _villain_! He _kills _people-"

"In his _current_ state?" Matt interrupted, indicating Sylar as he inched his way through the hole he'd created in the wall. "Hiro, the guy can barely even generate the power to break that lock easily; it took everything he _had _just to get the wall weak enough for him to do _that_. He's not in any position to kill people, trust me; once he got out, he spent most of his time just trying to regain control before he made his next move."

"Which was?" Hiro inquired, folding his arms and trying to glare at Matt; he knew he was too short to really carry off a convincing glare, but he felt obligated to try anyway.

"Information," Matt replied, as Sylar dropped out of the hole he'd created, landed on the ground, and began to run; the two of them automatically shifted to a position outside the prison to keep in with Sylar's memories- obviously he no longer remembered the inside of the prison as his location- but otherwise they remained still as Sylar began to run away. "He wanted to find out something… something that he hoped could help him…"

Bowing his head for a moment as though he was trying to find something, Matt finally looking up at Hrio, a slight grin on his face.

"Got it," he said as he looked at the young Japanese man. "After he felt that he'd recuperated enough to be a decent threat to people, Sylar's next stop was…"

* * *

As the now-almost-traditional flash that signified the transition between one memory and another faded from his 'eyes' once again- he constantly had to remind himself that he could do nothing here and wasn't even here in the _physical _sense of the term-, Hiro was surprised to see Sylar now sitting at a computer screen in a seemingly deserted office, tapping away at the keyboard as he studied the information being called up in front of him. 

"He went to _office_?" he said, looking over at Matt in confusion; Sylar had never struck him as somebody willing to take an indirect route to find victims when the direct path was the most simple way. "Why he do that; he normally just goes off and kills people! I not seeing any bodies around here!"

"Well, there's a bit more to his methods than that- he's got this list from a guy called Chandra Suresh that helped him to track down some people with a key gene pattern that gives us our powers- but you're right; this _is _a bit of a change from his normal methods of finding his victims…" Matt admitted, as he walked over to stand beside Sylar's memory-self, studying the information that the serial killer was looking at on the screen in front of him. "According to what I read from his mind, he came to this 'company' he'd discovered had been monitoring people like… well, like us- I've encountered them in the past, but I don't know why they're doing it in the first place, so don't ask- to try and discover some information about… somebody."

" 'Somebody'?" Hiro repeated, looking in frustration at the former cop. "You _telepath_; how can you _not _know what he looking for?"

"I can't get anything more specific with a basic scan like the one I made earlier, and Sylar's mind isn't that easy to read using my normal methods anyway after all the excess tissue he's taken into his system screwing with the way his brain operates," Matt explained. "The fact that I'd need to do this kind of in-depth scan to get more information anyway is part of the reason I'm showing you all of this in the first place; it helps _me _straighten it out as well as letting you see it."

With that said, he turned back to look at Sylar, looking slightly impatiently over at Hiro as he did so. "Look, just watch what he's doing here; the answers we're looking for have to come up sooner or later."

For a moment, the scene continued as it had been, with Sylar's memory-self continuing to tap away at the keyboard, staring intently at the screen as he discarded file after file, before he finally stopped.

"Well well well," he said, grinning broadly as he studied the information in front of him. "Now that _is _interesting…"

"What the…?" Matt muttered, as he leaned over to get a better look at the monitor before him, waving one hand to 'freeze' the memory-Sylar; he wanted to be able to study this at his leisure.

As he studied the information on the screen, however, Matt's expression shifted from curiosity to what looked to Hiro like a combination of interest and almost-shock, as though Matt wasn't sure if he should be shocked at what Sylar was looking at but was coming close to it. "OK, _that _raises more than a few questions…"

"Huh?" Hiro asked, looking curiously at Matt.

"Look at this," Matt said, waving Hiro over. "I _think_ I'm getting a few ideas about what's going on here, but I'd appreciate another set of eyes before I decide anything either way…"

As Hiro joined the former policeman, the two of them looked in confusion at the picture accompanying the information. The woman was an attractive blonde, in approximately her mid-to-late thirties, dressed in a light pink wrap, a white blouse and casual jeans, with a slightly thin, sharp face that gave the impression of someone who'd been hurt in the past and didn't want to put themselves in a position where it might happen again.

"Meredith Gordon?" Hiro said, reading the name at the top of what he assumed was a file on this particular woman. "What-"

"Look at the _rest _of the stuff on the screen," Matt said, as he rapidly scanned down the data on the monitor before them. "If I'm right, I think this could be the most telling memory we've seen so far…"

* * *

AN: In case anyone feels that I've forgotten that Matt's at least slightly- if not _seriously_- dyslexic, I haven't; it's just that, since he's 'reading' something he's taken in from Sylar's memories, and Sylar already _knows _what the information is, technically Matt isn't reading the words, but he's reading Sylar's _memory _of what the words were and sharing that with Hiro.

* * *

Reading over the information before them, Hiro failed to see what about it could have interested Sylar so much. He somehow doubted Sylar would be that interested in a pyrokinetic- his still-sketchy English was enough for him to know that it meant she was capable of starting fires with her mind-, her parents and birth place didn't seem like something he'd need to know either, and the fact that she'd had a child with somebody called Lewis Rushton, conceived during a drunken one-night-stand while she was on holiday with friends, didn't seem like something that would catch Sylar's interest either-

Wait a minute.

There _was _something in this file that Hiro, after what Matt had told him earlier about Peter and Claire, found _very _interesting…

_Despite her one-night stand with Mr Rushton, it is important to note that Miss Gordon was not unattached at the time; she was involved with Nathan Petrelli, the son of two of our founders, for two years prior to her encounter with Mr Rushton, and remained with him for another two before her demise in a fire. The precise cause of the blaze was never determined, but it is generally agreed that the fire was ignited by her own lack of control of her abilities._

_Prior to her demise, she claimed that her daughter Claire Bennet- subsequently taken in by Odessa branch head Noah Bennet and monitored for any sign of manifestation- was Mr Petrelli's child, although the girl was actually conceived after Miss Gordon's one-night stand with Mr Lewis Rushton while she was on holiday with friends. The subsequent lie to the eldest of the younger Mr Petrelli appeared to have been told with the intention of trying to ensure that Claire would have a father figure while growing up, but this remains conjecture; there is no evidence that Mr Petrelli was ever aware of the truth about his daughter's parentage, and at the present time we see no reason to inform him otherwise. All subsequent attempts to trace Mr Rushton have failed; it is believed that he is a 'special' himself, but the precise nature of his power and his current location remain unknown to us despite our best efforts._

Turning to look at Matt, Hiro was grateful to see that the same explanation had struck them both; at least Hiro knew he wasn't the only one to have grasped the full implications of what they'd just read.

"Flying man… _not _Claire's father?" Hiro said, looking at Matt with ever-widening eyes. "But… that mean…"

"So _that's _why Peter and Claire seemed so close in that first memory…" Matt breathed, as he looked at the information on the screen before them, the gleam of understanding evident in his eyes as the last pieces of this confusing puzzle began to fit into place. "They're _not _related; Claire's mother just _told _Nathan that Claire was his at the time because she didn't want to admit what had happened, or she wanted Claire to have an actual _father_…"

Almost as soon as the inspiration had occurred to him, Matt's face fell, as he looked at Hiro with a shaken expression. "Which explains why Sylar went after you in my timeline; he needed your powers to pull off the last stage of his plan."

"Last stage of _what _plan?" Hiro said, looking at Matt in confusion. "What you talking about?"

"I _think _I know what Sylar's done with your powers," Matt said, his expression grim as he looked at Hiro, the memory around them pausing as the former policeman addressed the ex-cubicle worker. "He killed D.L. to take his abilities, used those powers to kill you in such a manner that nobody would suspect he did it, and then travelled back in time to set up a plan that would get rid of Peter's only _real _advantage against him."

"_Only _advantage?" Hiro said, looking in confusion at Matt. "Sorry; I still a bit lost-"

"Look, you _saw _how well Peter did in that fight against Sylar when Claire was there; when he fought the guy in the history _I _remember, he barely even cared about whether or not he got through the fight," Matt explained as he looked at Hiro. "My theory's a bit of a stretch, but what I _think_ happened is…"

Sighing, he shook his head, as though trying to clear his thoughts, before he turned to look directly at Hiro once again. "Look, when we became friends, you told me that Kensei's sword acted as a kind of focus for you; you were able to hone and use your powers far better with it than you'd ever been able to without it, right?"

"Well, I use abilities better when with Charlie as well-" Hiro began.

"_Exactly_," Matt said, nodding in satisfaction. "What Charlie was to you _then_, and what the sword is to you _now_… Claire was to Peter in that first memory."

Hiro's eyes widened in understanding and shock.

"But… he not _have _that in history that _you _remember… because he thought she his _niece_…" he breathed, looking at Matt in increasingly-obvious horror as inspiration struck him. "So he take _my _powers…"

"To do _this_," Matt said grimly. Before Hiro could ask for clarification, Matt had waved his hand…


	9. Flashback: Old Secret, New Mission

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: To anyone who's been finding the last couple of chapters a bit hard to follow, I hope this makes up for that; here, questions are answered, discoveries are made, and the NEXT stage of this story begins…

AN 2: On the above topic, it occurred to me that I haven't explained why Angela had the Haitian keep an eye on Claire despite the fact that she wasn't _really _Claire's grandmother. Since Meredith never told anyone the truth, Angela still kept on her out of some slight sense of believed family loyalty, but since, in the original history, Meredith went on to tell Claire the _truth _about her parentage before Claire left for New York, Claire was able to set Angela straight after they met when Angela tried to break Peter and Claire up on the grounds that they were engaged in an 'incestuous' relationship

AN 3: Just to clarify, most of the moments with Sylar and Meredith are adapted from the first chapter, which took place around the conclusion of 'Distractions' and the beginning of 'Run!'

Seeds of the Future

_Hiro Nakamura, Matt Parkman and Sylar  
New York, 2013 _

Hiro barely even blinked when he found himself standing in the same apartment where he and Matt had fought and knocked Sylar out mere minutes ago (Had it been minutes? He'd heard that experiences in the mind could go faster than they did in reality; maybe he'd been in there for only a few seconds and it just _seemed _longer); the fact that Sylar was still standing and showing no sign of his earlier bruises was the only clear indication that he _wasn't _back in reality.

What he _wasn't _expecting, however, was for Sylar to close his eyes, focus, and his surroundings to suddenly shift to what looked like a trailer, a blonde-haired woman wearing a pink blouse and jeans in her late thirties or early forties standing in front of them, looking at Sylar in shock.

"Wha-?" she began, before Sylar casually waved his hand, pinning her to the wall of her trailer before she could do much more than blink. Hiro barely even had time to realise that the woman before them was Meredith Gordon- Claire's _mother_- before the power-stealing serial killer began to speak again.

"Now then," Sylar said, staring at the woman in his hand with that same arrogant smirk that Hiro was sure left practically everyone who met Sylar wanting to punch him in the face, "listen to me _very _carefully, do _exactly _what I tell you to do, and you might _just _get out of this alive."

"Huh?" Hiro said, looking over at Matt in confusion. "What the hell we doing _here _so fast?"

"I figured you probably wouldn't want to see your own _death_; I decided to… jump over that and get right to the real issue here," Matt explained, looking over at Hiro as he waved a hand to 'pause' the picture around them. "All you need to know is that, by this point, Sylar's killed D.L. and this woman called Candice Wilmer; she had the power to create illusions, although she normally used them to change her own appearance. Sylar than used D.L.'s power to kill you without anyone _knowing _you were taken out by him-"

"And now he jump to past to talk to Claire's mother?" Hiro concluded, looking over at where Sylar had pinned Meredith to the wall. "When this happen?"

"Just a few moments before we showed up to pin him down, really," Matt replied, shaking his head as he studied Sylar before looking back at Hiro. "If it makes you feel any better, it took the guy ages to work out how to use your power the way he wanted to use it; he can't actually use it to manipulate time with the same kind of fine control that you'll learn in your future."

Hiro smiled slightly at that as he looked over at Sylar.

"It all about heart, huh?" he said, looking at the power-stealing serial killer with a slight smirk as he drew his sword, studying the weapon for a moment before he looked back at Matt. "As you say, Charlie and the sword are my centres… Claire seems to be Peter's… but Sylar?"

He snorted scornfully. "No centre at all; cares for nothing but himself."

"Exactly," Matt agreed, nodding in confirmation at his friend, before his expression became grimmer as he turned to look back at the scene before them. "Of course, with his level of power, Sylar doesn't _need _a centre for most of his powers…"

Turning back to look at the scene before them, Hiro could see what Matt meant; Sylar may lack _perfect _control over all of his powers, but he was still clearly maintaining enough control to present an intimidating presence in front of Meredith.

"Wh-wh-what do you w-w-want?" the pyroteknic asked, looking fearfully at the former watchmaker before her.

"What do I want?" Sylar repeated, smirking grimly at her. "Well, among other things, I want you to pick up the phone, call Nathan Petrelli, and tell him that your daughter- yours _and _his; make _no _reference to the mysterious Mr Rushton, if you don't mind- has just dropped in, and you'd appreciate a little money to keep it quiet, what with the election coming up and all."

"W-what?" Meredith said, looking in confusion at him. "W-w-why-?"

"Ah ah ah," Sylar said, raising his other hand to wave a scolding finger in front of her. "You're not here to ask _me _questions; you're here to ask Mr Petrelli if he'll give you money to keep quiet about 'his' daughter. Clear?"

Swallowing anxiously, Meredith nodded at him.

"Good," Sylar said, releasing his grip and lowering her back to the ground. "The phone's just over there; you know what to do."

Rubbing her throat as she walked, clearly trying to get her voice back to normal, Meredith walked over to sit down on a sofa and lit a cigarette, evidently trying to calm herself. After a few moments, Sylar patiently watching her with his arms folded, Meredith picked up the phone, dialled a number, put it to her ear, and began to pace up and down in front of the sofa…

"_Hello_?" the familiar voice said on the other end of the line that Matt and Hiro both knew well.

"Sylar's enhanced hearing allowed him to hear both sides of the conversation; that's how we're hearing it now," Matt said before Hiro could even ask the question. "Watch what's happening; I don't know how long we have before whatever's happening to Sylar's memories… catches up with us, for lack of a better term."

"Um…" Meredith was saying into the phone, clearly trying to sound less uncertain than she felt. "You might not remember me. We- we haven't spoken in a long time, but... I just had..."

Noting a glare from Sylar as he stood in the corner of the trailer, she forced herself to say what she was here to say in the first place.

"Our daughter just found me," she said.

For a moment, there was silence, until Meredith finally spoke again.

"Did you hear what I just said?" she repeated into the phone. "She's _alive_."

"_Meredith_?" Nathan's voice said on the other end of the line, incredulity evident in his voice.

After hearing his voice, Meredith smiled slightly.

"We need to talk," she said, pausing for a moment to wait for Nathan to reply, only to sigh after a prolonged silence and speak impatiently into the phone once again.

"Nathan, are you still there?" she asked critically.

"_It's… it's been fourteen _years," Nathan's voice weakly protested on the other line. "_I went to your _funeral."

"Look, that fire-" Meredith began, before stopping herself as she stood up and began to walk towards the kitchen, unhindered by Sylar; evidently he would only interfere if she did anything to give him away. Hiro's heart ached for the lie she had to tell because of Sylar, even as he knew that he could do nothing to help her now; all he could do was learn what had happened to her so that he could find a way to prevent Sylar succeeding in his ultimate goal.

A goal that he was rapidly becoming certain he could guess at, even if he had nothing definite so far to base his conclusions on…

"It… it wasn't an accident," Meredith said as she continued to walk through the trailer, clearly trying to ignore Sylar's presence in the room. "Someone was out to get me, and the police, they just assumed I was dead, so... I ran."

Once again, there was a brief silence on the other end of the line, before Nathan spoke once more.

"_And our daughter_?" he asked.

Meredith allowed herself a small, pleased chuckle at that, a fact that pleased Hiro. If he took nothing else from this, he could at least take the fact that Meredith _had _been fond of Claire; the expression on her face right now evidently showed pride in her daughter.

"Well, she's got an angel on her shoulder, that one," she said, allowing her pleasure at the life her child had found to come through as she sat down on a table in the main 'dining area' of the trailer. "She was adopted by a nice family here in Texas. She's sixteen now. And she's beautiful. She's got blond hair, like me… and she's smart, just like you. Maybe one day she'll run for Congress."

At that comment, there was a brief pause on the other end of the line, prompting an anxious glance between Matt and Hiro- were they wrong about what was happening here?-, before Nathan spoke once more.

"_The timing of... your call_," he said, slowly and carefully, as though he wanted to make sure that there were no misunderstandings. "_Two weeks before my election, that- that's not a coincidence, is it_?"

"A child born out of wedlock?" Meredith said; Hiro prayed that she was exaggerating the coolness in her voice when she talked, as though Claire was nothing more than a bargaining chip rather than a person. "That's big news. You wouldn't want that to come out. Ruin things for you-"

"_How much do you want_?" Nathan asked on the other end of the line, sounding almost resigned to what was being asked of him.

"Oh," Meredith said, pausing as though she wanted time to think of a decent number, "um…

"_One hundred thousand dollars_?" Nathan's voice interrupted.

"Yeah," Meredith said simply. "That ought to cover it; I'll let you know where to send it."

With that, she hung up the phone call and turned to look at Sylar as he stood before her, a grim expression on her face.

"All right," Meredith said simply, folding her arms as she looked at the ex-watchmaker. "I've done what you wanted; now, would you care to tell me _why _I needed to do that?"

"Simple enough, my dear Miss Gordon," Sylar replied, chuckling slightly as he raised one hand, flexing it slightly. "I needed time to make sure that you weren't lying."

Meredith blinked in confusion.

"Excuse me?" she said, staring at Sylar sceptically. "What do you mean, you needed to make sure that I wasn't lying?"

"I'm afraid that the answer to that question is for me to know, and you to… _never _find out," Sylar replied, a slight smirk on his face as his left hand began to glow in a worrying manner; it vaguely reminded Hiro of Iceman in the third _X-Men _movie, but he wouldn't like to swear to it. "Now then, let's just… take this outside."

Instantly, Meredith froze mid-motion, leaving Sylar grinning in a manner that made Hiro think of a stressed man trying to generate a casual appearance for an audience as he lowered his now-normal hand.

"Huh?" Hiro said, looking over at Matt as Sylar walked over to place a hand on Meredith's shoulder. "What _happening _here?"

"In a nutshell?" Matt replied, looking back at Hiro. "From what I can get from his mind, Sylar didn't want to kill Meredith inside the trailer in case it left a trace that he couldn't get rid of before somebody showed up, so he decided to freeze time and teleport her out of here; he did the ice trick with his hand just to look intimidating."

Noting Hiro's slightly confused expression, Matt shrugged. "Yeah, I know, it's a stupidly elaborate way to take her outside, but I think he just wanted to prove to himself that he could do it that way; as I said, he'd been having some trouble using your powers properly, so he's taking pretty much any chance he has to use them."

Looking at Sylar, Hiro could see what Matt meant easily enough; while he'd always been able to just stop time and leave it at that until he wanted it to start again- his powers had suffered somewhat after his first confrontation with Sylar and Charlie's death, but they'd been getting better once again since he acquired Kensei's sword-, Sylar seemed to need to constantly concentrate just to keep time still long enough for him to grab Meredith.

"_No_…" Sylar muttered to himself as he carried Meredith out of the trailer. "I'm special… I'm the strongest… I can _do _this…"

"In case you're wondering, that's just what he's _thinking_; he wasn't saying anything out loud while he was doing this," Matt clarified as he looked over at Hiro. "It hasn't happened before because he was more focused on just getting out or stopping Peter rather than actually thinking anything that could be translated into words; just thought I'd clarify that for you."

"Thanks," Hiro said briefly, as Sylar kicked the door open- another difference between him and Sylar; Hiro was confident that he could have teleported out of here rather than just carry Meredith like that- before throwing her out of the door, stepping out of the trailer and slamming the door behind him just in time for time to start again, leaving Sylar gasping as Meredith looked in confusion at him.

"Damn…" he gasped briefly, as he stared grimly ahead of him, Meredith apparently forgotten as he tried to catch his breath. "That damn… Japanese guy… was _really_ good…"

Despite the seriousness of the situation he was watching, Hiro found himself smiling slightly at this proof of the degree of control he had over his powers; not even Sylar, who wielded _multiple _abilities, could get complete control over his own power.

He was also pleased to note that Meredith didn't show much hesitation in taking advantage of Sylar's weakness; even confused, she still clearly wanted to protect her daughter. While Sylar was still disorientated, Claire's mother raised her hand and launched a burst of flame at the serial killer's face, only for Sylar to raise his left hand- once again glowing in an Iceman-like manner- and the fire died out as though it had never been.

"Subtle use of his ice powers," Matt clarified as Hiro glanced back at him. "He cooled the air around Meredith's blaze even as it was launched and caused the fire to die out before it hit him; he thought it was more 'mysterious' than just freezing the flames themselves."

"Impressive," Sylar said as he studied Meredith, as always ignorant of Matt and Hiro's presence, his tone conveying surprise at Meredith's accomplishment even as she stared in horror up at him. "May I ask why you didn't do it earlier?"

He didn't even give Meredith a chance to respond before he answered his own question. "Of course; you haven't _used _it on that kind of scale for years, have you? You wouldn't attack earlier because you saw a chance of getting away _without _needing to use something that you don't deserve and can't control…"

Chuckling slightly, Sylar stared with renewed intensity at Meredith, clearly taking great pleasure in her shock at his easy disabling of her powers. "Not that it matters, of course; you're still going to die."

"Who… who _are _you?" Meredith asked, looking in fear up at the man who was about to take her life.

Raising his left hand to point at her, Sylar smirked at her one last time.

"Call me Sylar," he said simply.

Before Hiro's eyes, as Sylar waved his fingers, Meredith's entire body suddenly collapsed into a liquid substance, even as Sylar's appearance shifted to become Meredith's exact physical double. Taking one last scornful look at Meredith's body, he turned around and walked back towards the trailer, leaving the small puddle of liquid that was all that remained of Meredith Gordon to lie in the middle of the road.

"You claimed you could always defeat me, Peter?" he said- most likely thought, now that Hiro thought about it; that wasn't the kind of thing you said out loud under these circumstances- as he walked into the trailer. "Let's see how you manage _without_ your little cheerleader in your corner…"

Suddenly, before Hiro could even begin to ask Matt to move on to the next memory, everything around them suddenly blurred, and Hiro felt as though something was tugging on the back of his neck.

"What-?" he began, looking over at Matt, only to grow increasingly nervous as he took in the shaken expression on the telepath's face.

"Something's forcing me out!" he said, looking desperately over at Hiro. "I don't think we've got much time left; try and pay attention to what I'm about to show you!"

Before Hiro could ask what he meant by that, Matt suddenly placed a hand on his forehead-

* * *

"_Oh, hey, Claire," Sylar/Meredith said into the phone, smiling slightly as he/she spoke. "I'm glad you called. Talk about coincidence. I found your father."_

* * *

"_Claire?" Sylar/Meredith said, trying to sound surprised as he/she answered the door to find Claire on the other side. "What are you doing here? _

"_I have to see my father," Claire replied, prompting a brief spike- from the memory, Hiro could only assume- of what felt like glee at this further proof of his inevitable success as another place slid into place. "You don't understand. I'll wait here all night if I have to."

* * *

_"_Look," Nathan Petrelli said as he placed the briefcase on the table before Sylar/Meredith, "for what it's worth, I'm sorry for the way things turned out. You know, I could've been a…"_

_For a moment, he paused to clear his throat, and then he continued. "A much better person back then."  
_

"_You politicians," Sylar/Meredith said, clearly wanting to avoid too much discussion of that topic, "you sure know your way around an apology. You and me, we were never gonna work out. Two diff-"  
_

"_Different worlds," Nathan said at the same time.__

* * *

Looking out of the trailer window, Sylar/Meredith smiled slightly as he saw Claire throw a rock at the back of Nathan's car, only to duck out of sight as Nathan glanced back._

"_Perfect," he/she said/thought as he turned away from the window, transforming back to his normal appearance as he did so. "She's seen him, she's got no reason to think he's _not _her dear daddy, and she's got no idea I wasn't real. Now, to get baaaaacccckkk…"

* * *

_

Almost as soon as the images had begun, they were over, and Hiro found himself and Matt sprawled on the ground, staring up in shock at a revived Sylar, staring at the two of them with a renewed fury.

"YOU _DARE _TO _TOUCH _ME?" he roared, spreading his arms as his hands glowed in what Hiro was already coming to think of as 'Iceman mode'. "_ME_? I am the _ULTIMATE _being on this planet, and you- you _DARE_ to even _TRY _to attack me?"

"Sylar, can you just give all that a _rest_?" Matt retorted as he and Hiro got to their feet, glaring angrily at his enemy. "I mean, the fact that you killed people is bad enough, but claiming that you're special? You're nothing but a useless parasite; you _steal _from others because you're weak yourself, and you couldn't accept the fact that Peter was better than you without even trying to be-"

"HE WAS _NOT _BETTER THAN ME!" Sylar roared, thrusting out his hands to pin Matt and Hiro to the wall, walking over to glare at them as he squeezed his hands, leaving their throats feeling like they were being slightly squeezed. "His _pathetic _power of mimicry was _never _good enough to fight me-"

"Sylar," Matt stated simply, fixing his eyes on the man before him. "Shut up."

With those words, Sylar suddenly collapsed to the ground, screaming in rage and pain as he clutched at his head. As soon as he clutched at his head, the two men fell back to the ground once more, Matt landing on his feet while Hiro hit the ground with an uncomfortable thump.

"GAGH!" Hiro yelled as he hit the ground, a sharp pain briefly shooting up his legs as hit the floor, the former cubicle worker looking up at the now-seemingly-terrified Sylar in shock. "What… what _happening _to him?"

"More nightmare-like version of what I did earlier," Matt explained, his face grim as he looked back at Hiro. "Last time, I just made him relive several memories at random; _this _time, I'm making him remember some of the most painful experiences of his life, one after the other."

Walking towards his friend, Matt helped Hiro get back to his feet, placing his hands on the other man's shoulders and looking him resolutely in the eyes. "I can't hold him for long, though; it's up to you now."

"Me?" Hiro repeated, looking in confusion back at Matt. "To do what?"

"You saw what I saw, Hiro; this _isn't _how it's meant to be," Matt stated, his face grim as he looked at the time-bender. "Sylar made Peter think Claire was his neice, and as a result, Peter lost the control over his powers that was the only thing that helped him _stop _Sylar. Sylar changed things, and you're the only person who can put them back."

Hiro's eyes widened.

He… he _could _save Peter Petrelli?

He'd wanted to do that from the moment he heard what had happened, of course, but as Matt had pointed out, he couldn't just change history every time he felt like it; he had to be _responsible _with his power.

It was like in the example his future self had given Matt; wanting to change the past just because you didn't like how it had gone back then wasn't the way to live your life, even if you _could _do it.

But if Sylar had changed history _already_…

_He could change it back_!

"Go," Matt said, looking grimly at his friend, his eyes flicking briefly over to where Sylar was still screaming on the ground before turning back to stare at Hiro. "Put time back the way it was. _Be the one we need, Hiro_."

"But… but if I change it…" Hiro weakly protested, looking between Matt and Sylar. "You… _you _won't exist…"

Matt shrugged, a slight smile on his face.

"Eh, this timeline's been OK, but I'd like something where I was on better terms with the Kirby Plaza team," he said, before he stood back and turned to face Sylar, pausing briefly to look back at Hiro.

"Save Peter," he said, a slight smile on his face as though remembering something he'd heard long ago, "save the world."

With that, before Hiro could do anything, Matt had charged towards Sylar, pinning the psychopath to the ground even as the ex-watchmaker tried to get back to his feet.

"_GO_!" Matt yelled, looking in frustration up at Hiro as he tried to hold Sylar down, even as the man who'd once been known as Gabriel Gray tried to get to his feet. "I'll be OK!"

Hiro had nothing to say to that.

What was there to say?

Matt was right; he had a mission, and he was going to accomplish it.

The world needed Peter if the Heroes of Kirby Plaza were ever going to stop Sylar, Peter needed Claire if he was going to maintain control of his powers, and Peter and Claire would never have each other unless he told them the truth.

All he had to do was get back to the past after the fight, and tell Peter and Claire the truth about themselves _before _Peter was killed by Sylar as he had been in this history.

Closing his eyes, trying to ignore the sound of Matt's struggle to hold Sylar down as the killer fought to get back to his feet, Hiro focused his thoughts on his destination- New York, five years ago, as soon after the Kirby Plaza battle as possible-, smiling slightly as he felt time finally beginning to shift around him.

_Here I come_…

* * *

AN 4: OK, so the information's been put together, and the reason for Sylar's actions has been established; next chapter, we see what kind of state the other Heroes are in after the Kirby Plaza battle, and then Hiro arrives to give them their _next _mission. 

Of course, it's not going to be as simple as you'd think; let's just say that Sylar's _never _the kind of guy to go quietly…


	10. Confrontations

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Just to let you know, these events take place around a week after the confrontation in Kirby Plaza, so Peter's guilt-ridden drunken binge- culminating in his death at Sylar's hands, as recorded in Chapter Five- hasn't taken place yet, and he's still recovering in the hospital along with some of the other participants in the Kirby Plaza showdown

AN 2: OK, following recent revelations in "Four Months Ago…", I would like to make it clear that I am IN NO WAY following that episode regarding what happened to the other characters; as far as this story is concerned, Matt and D.L. were both taken to the same hospital as Peter after the fight, and they stayed there for about a week before the events that are described here (So none of that stuff with Niki developing a _third _personality will happen here, although I may still have D.L. become a firefighter at some future date)

Seeds of the Future

D. L. Hawkins, Niki Sanders, Matt Parkman New York, 2008 

As she sat outside the room of the man who'd nearly been responsible for the destruction of New York, Niki sipped on the last of her cup of coffee and hoped that he would be OK.

She knew that it was a bit of an odd thing to think about a man who'd nearly blown up a city, of course- how often did you wish for somebody to be OK when they'd nearly been responsible for killing your entire family?- but, after everything she'd learned about him from his brother (And hadn't _that _been an awkward 'reunion', given that the man in question was Nathan Petrelli, who'd cheated on his wife with her the last time they'd met…?)…

Well, she had to admit, she felt somewhat sorry for Peter Petrelli.

Maybe it was the mothering instinct in her wanting to comfort somebody who'd been through so much… maybe it was the fact that he'd been prepared to sacrifice himself to _stop _the explosion that would have taken place from happening… maybe it was his evident grief at the thought of what he could have done if his brother hadn't managed to fly him to safety… Niki wasn't sure and she didn't feel the need to overanalyse it that much. All that mattered was that, when you got down to the essential facts, he hadn't _meant _to do anything, and that was all that really mattered to her right now.

"Still nothin'?" D.L.'s voice asked from off to the side, prompting her to look up and smile as he sat down beside her, passing her a bottle of water as he did so.

"Not that I can hear, anyway; everything's beeping, but that aside I can't tell anything else," Niki replied, before she opened the bottle and took a brief sip of its contents. "How about your 'assignment'?"

D.L. shrugged.

"Eh, Parkman's a good healer; he's doing fine," he said casually. "The guy's already back on his feet, and he said he'd come and join us once he's managed to stop himself wincing every minute or so."

With that said, D.L. leaned back against the wall behind him, a slight smile on his face as he looked up at the ceiling. "God… I still can't believe it… We're _not _the only ones out there with powers…"

Niki smiled slightly at her husband.

"Yeah, I know; great, isn't it?" she said, leaning over to place an affectionate hand on his shoulder, trying to ignore the bandages around his chest that were just visible under his shirt; even after almost a week, she still didn't like thinking about how close she'd come to losing him. "I mean, OK, so we still don't know anyone else with _our _powers, but hey; a mind reader, a healer, _and _a guy who can fly? They may not be the same as ours, but that's still pretty cool, if you ask me."

"Don't forget the human mimic in there," D.L. added, indicating the room behind them with another slight smile. "Guy's had some trouble at the moment, sure, but give him the chance?"

He smiled slightly. "From what Mr Flyer told us about him, sounds like he'll do fine."

"Yeah…" Niki replied, nodding her head slightly at the thought of the politician in question. After they'd rescued Micah and dealt with Linderman's plans for New York, she, Nathan and D.L. had all come to an unspoken agreement not to mention the fact that Jessica had been hired by Linderman to not only seduce Nathan, but later to kill him (Even if it looked like she'd never been intended to succeed given Linderman's plans for Nathan); as far as they were all concerned, those incidents had never occurred in the first place. They made it a point to avoid thinking about them whenever Matt Parkman was around, of course- his control over his abilities may have been erratic when it came to picking up stray thoughts, but he was growing better at picking out specific voices all the time-, but apart from that little detail it rarely had any significant impact on their relationship with their new friends.

"Everything OK?" Matt's voice said from off to the side, breaking Niki's train of thought as she and D.L. looked over in his direction, just in time to see him put a phone into his pocket as he walked towards them.

"Peter's still not showing much in the way of signs of life; it's basically still just guard duty," Niki said, as she took another sip of her water. After what they'd all learned from Doctor Suresh, Nathan and Matt about this 'Company' that seemed to be trying to track down people like them, Niki and D.L. had automatically volunteered to act as 'bodyguards' until Peter got out of his coma; if the Company got a hold of somebody as powerful as Peter, there was no telling what could happen. Since D.L. and Niki were both currently out of work at the moment- fortunately Linderman had left them enough money from the work they'd done for him to support them for a while at least-, they'd volunteered to keep an eye on Peter while he recovered, with Nathan volunteering for his family to look after Micah in the meantime until they decided where they wanted to go. It had been a bit awkward meeting Nathan's wife at first- even with their 'Don't-talk-about-the-seduction' policy, Niki wasn't sure she'd ever feel comfortable talking to the woman Nathan had cheated on when he'd been with her/Jessica (She was still trying to define where she should draw the line between the two of them)-, but once the initial discomfort had been out of the way, Heidi had been perfectly happy to keep an eye on Micah after Niki and D.L. had explained who they were and how they had met the Petrelli brothers (While, of course, avoiding to mention Jessica's 'one-night-stand' with Nathan; Heidi seemed to suspect the truth, but she'd never mentioned it and nobody had any desire to tell her directly).

Indeed, after Linderman healing her paralysis, she was proving ever more eager to learn more about the abilities that her husband, brother-in-law and step-daughter possessed, along with the rest of their little group. Admittedly, she was slightly apprehensive about the possibility of her sons manifesting a power of some kind themselves- after what their father, uncle and half-sister had shown themselves to be capable of, Heidi was naturally apprehensive about what kind of powers Simon and Monty might develop-, but that aside her introduction to 'their world'- for lack of a better term- had gone fairly well.

"Anyway," Niki said, breaking away from her brief stroll down memory lane to look back at Matt, "who were you calling just then?"

"Oh, that was Nathan; he said he'd be done in half an hour to check on Peter's condition himself," Matt answered, as he indicated a seat beside D.L. and Niki's. "OK if I sit here while we wait?"

"Sure," Niki replied, grateful once again that she and Matt had managed to get past their 'first' meeting when Matt had been thrown out of a window by Jessica; being on uncomfortable terms with the man who could read minds could have become more than slightly difficult, given the potential for him to read something private and use it against her. Admittedly, after he'd learned the full details about Niki's condition following the Kirby Plaza confrontation, Matt had been quick to assure her that he didn't blame _Niki _for what had been done by _Jessica_, but there was still the occasional tense moment between the two of them on some occasions.

"How's Janine doing down here?" D.L. asked as Matt sat down, wincing slightly as he did so; like with D.L., the bullet-wounds in Matt's chest from where Sylar had telekinetically thrown his own shots back at him were still painful, although thanks to Nathan's connections Matt had received the best care possible and had come through the surgery fairly well. He wouldn't be doing any running or something like that any time soon, but he was still doing fairly well given his injuries, and was expected to be back to full health within around a month or so.

"Oh… about what you'd expect," Matt replied, shrugging slightly as he looked over at his new friends. "Seriously, though, I think having Heidi to talk to helps; at least she's got somebody to talk to about this… situation, you know."

"What, being a normal person married to a guy who can do something you wouldn't expect people to be capable of?" D.L. asked, chuckling slightly as he reached over to pat Matt affectionately on the shoulder. "Look on the bright side; she's taken it pretty well, you beat the bad guy, met some interesting people, _and_ you got a kid on the way?"

Despite the fact that the almost-fatal bullet-wound in his stomach limited the possibility that he would _ever _be able to look on the 'bright side' about this situation, Matt couldn't stop himself from smiling slightly at the renewed reminder of his upcoming fatherhood. Even his concerns about what powers his child might manifest couldn't dim the simple joy he felt at the thought of his future son or daughter.

The new life his powers had given him would never be simple, of course, but so far he had to admit that the benefits definitely helped him deal with the negatives.

He'd lost the life he knew, but gained a group of the most… _unique_ friends he'd ever had, as well as experiencing the kind of events that he'd never have imagined _anyone _would encounter in his-

He froze mid-thought as he sensed a stray thought coming towards them from down the hall.

-_can't believe they had the _nerve _to keep Peter's location_-

That was all he heard before the voice vanished back into silence, but it was all Matt needed. His control over his power was still erratic at times, but thanks to some practice with Professor Suresh, he'd managed to learn how to keep the power on at a low level that allowed him to pick up the more 'powerful' thoughts without leaving him bombarded by the sounds of everyone around him. In essence, he'd learned how to tune out the sounds of people just talking in his presence and latch on to the sound of people _yelling_ around him.

In other words, there was somebody coming towards them who was definitely _very _determined to see Peter, and judging by what he could guess about the person's age based on their 'voice', he had a pretty good idea who was coming.

"We might have a problem," he said, looking over at Niki and D.L. as he spoke. "If I'm right, we're about to have a visit from one of the people who tried to set Peter up to explode in the first place."

"Oh, _great_," Niki groaned, as she and D.L. stood up. "Who are we talking about here; one of Linderman's lackeys?"

"Worse," Matt replied grimly. "If I'm guessing right, it's Peter's mother."

At that, D.L. and Niki's expressions instantly became more resolute than they had been earlier. Throughout their earlier meetings with Nathan, he'd made one thing clear to them more than anything else; they were not, under any circumstances, to allow his mother to gain access to Peter. The newly-elected senator wasn't sure what she'd do with his brother if she did get her hands on him, but he knew enough about her plans to know that he didn't want to find out; given that he and Peter had pretty much ended her plans to 'save the world' by destroying the city, he definitely didn't want her to have the chance to 'talk' to his brother.

"Right then," Niki said, her face assuming a hardened expression that put Matt uncomfortably in mind of their first meeting, "let's make sure she gets the message that she can't expect to see him after what she tried to do."

Matt was never entirely sure why Niki became more hostile when the subject of Angela Petrelli came up, but he suspected that it was because she hated the idea of a mother using her son like that. Even if he hadn't seen the anger on Jessica's face when she'd confronted him and Bennet in the Linderman building while looking for Micah, she had always struck him as the person who cared passionately about her family.

For somebody to actually try and use their children to do what Linderman and his associates had tried to use Peter…

An action like that was definitely _not _the best way to get on Niki's good side.

As soon as they were all standing, a woman who perfectly matched the description Nathan had given them of Angela Petrelli rounded the corner, stopping as she saw the three people standing resolutely in front of the door.

"Can I help you?" she asked in an almost grimly polite tone.

"Yes," Niki replied in an almost identical tone. "You can 'help' us by turning around and walking away from this room as fast as you can; you're not wanted here."

For a moment, the woman blinked in surprise, and then she shook her head in a slightly pitying manner as though she'd only just realised that she was talking to an idiot.

"I'm sorry, maybe you don't know who I am; I'm the mother of the man inside that room behind you," she said, looking at the three of them in a manner that Matt assumed was intended to be reassuring but failed to achieve its intended goal. "I have a right to see him-"

"Sorry, but we've all had a talk with his brother, and the guy doesn't _want_ you to see Pete," D.L. stated, his expression giving away nothing but contempt as he glared at her. "Don't know him well, I admit, but what I _do _know gives me more of a reason to trust him than what I know of you; you're _not _getting to see Peter, OK?"

"I am his _mother_-" the woman began.

"The mother who was willing to let him _blow up a city _in accordance with some 'grand plan' you and your friends had to 'save the world' by 'uniting it in tragedy'?" Matt interjected, glaring at her as he stood up, ignoring the pain in his chest from his bullet-wounds. "Nathan told us all about that, and let me tell you, even if I _wasn't _one of the '0.07' who would have been taken out when he went nuclear, I can't _believe _you can call yourself his mother and let him do that. You knew that Peter would _hate _himself for causing something on that scale, and yet you were willing to let it happen because you _thought _it was 'for the best'?"

Walking forwards slightly, Matt looked Angela directly in the eyes, folding his arms as he allowed himself a slight wince before continuing. "Your intentions don't matter to me; even if he wasn't your _son_, if you can't think- if you don't _care_- about the fate of the individual in that kind of scheme, you don't deserve to think you have the right to try and do something on that scale."

"Gotta admit, I'm with him on this one," D. L. said, standing up to look equally authoritatively at the older woman. "I've done some bad stuff in my time, I'm not denying that, but letting your own _kid _do something that you _know _he'd barely be able to live with? You want to do something like that, do your own dirty work. Using your own _kid _like that?"

He folded his arms- managing to restrain the slight wince from where his muscles tightened around his old bullet-wound- and glared resolutely at Angela Petrelli. "Far as I'm concerned, you've got no right to see him."

"I did what was best for the world-" Angela tried to say.

"OK, firstly, I already told you that doesn't matter to us, and secondly, what gave you the _right _to make that decision, huh?" Matt interrupted, raising a critical eyebrow as he stared at her. "Your money? Your role in the Company? Your power- do you even _have _one, by the way?"

Angela tried to open her mouth to protest, but Matt raised a hand to cut her off. "You know what, I don't care about your response; _nothing _can justify it. We may have some interesting powers, but that doesn't make us _better _than everyone else; we still have to stick to the system if we're ever going to get anywhere. Believe me, I'd _love _to be able to use my powers to just bypass the rules, but if I learned anything from dealing with the FBI to hunt Sylar, it's that things are never going to be that simple; we don't work _with _people, we'll never get anywhere."

"Don't agree with the example, but the point he made certainly sticks," D.L. added, walking forward to glare directly at Angela. "Y'know, I may have broken out of jail with my ability, but at least I did that to _protect _people; I didn't just do it because I _could_. You?"

He snorted as he continued to glare at her. "You just did all that to him because you felt that you had the right to do it."

"Do you even _realise _the kind of world you and your associates 'saved' that night, Mr Hawkins?" Angela asked, glaring back at him. "Children dying of hunger and AIDS all around the world, murders being committed over such petty matters as race and religion… we _needed _a cause to bring us together and overcome our differences-"

"By blowing up a _city_?" D.L. retorted sarcastically. "Yeah, _that _makes sense; _add _to the problem to try and 'fix' it? Dude was goin' to go _nuclear_, last time I checked; fallout from something big enough to do that would _not _have been pretty, but did your lot even think about that?"

Angela opened her moth, but Matt raised a hand to stop her.

"Trust me," he said grimly as he stared back at her, "I know almost exactly what you're going to say before you say it, and there is _nothing _you can say that will justify what you did. Just… get out of my face before I try and see what _else _my powers are capable of?"

"And trust me," Niki added, taking up a position between the ex-cop and her husband, "even if his powers are passive at the moment, you know what I can do, and you should also know that you do _not _want to make me angry. If you know anything about Linderman's work and what he hired me to do, you'll know that I can get very… unpredictable… when I get angry."

For a moment, Angela Petrelli just continued to stare at the three people standing before her, but then she sighed and stepped back.

"This isn't over," she said simply.

"From what we know of you, I wouldn't expect anything else," Matt replied, his expression grim as he stared back at her.

"For now, though," Niki stated, stepping forward slightly and raising one fist in a threatening manner, "two words; _get_. _Out_."

After another threatening glare at the group before her, Angela turned around and walked out of the corridor, the three 'specials' continuing to stare after her until she vanished around the corner.

"_Finally_…" Niki sighed, as she leaned back against the wall. "At least _that _little bit of unpleasantness is finally out of the way."

"You're kidding, right?" D.L. asked, glancing back critically at his wife. "You really think_ that's _going to stop her? The lady tried to have the city blown to bits for some demented goal of hers; she's not going to just stop after _one _confrontation."

"Maybe not, but she _does _know that it's not going to be as easy to get to Peter as she might have hoped," Matt pointed out as he glanced back at his two friends. "I mean, what's she going to do that can get past all _three _of us? Even if that Haitian guy shows up, we've got him outnumbered-"

"Haitian?" Niki asked, looking inquiringly at Matt.

"Oh, sorry; he's a member of the Company that Linderman and her were associated with," Matt explained, as the three of them sat down once again, jerking a finger in the direction that Angela had just walked. "The guy had the power to both erase memories and suppress other people's powers when he was near them; my power pretty much shut down whenever he was nearby."

Noting D.L. and Niki's suddenly worried expressions, he shrugged reassuringly. "Hey, don't worry about it; as I said, even if Angela _did _send the Haitian, what could he do against three of us at once? From what I saw, those abilities I told you about are his only real powers; if it came down to a fight between us and him, we'd have the numbers advantage if nothing else."

"Ah," Niki said, nodding in understanding as she looked back at the cop. "Well, at least that's something…"

Before anyone could say anything else, the corridor in front of them suddenly seemed to blur- Niki couldn't think of a better way to describe it; everything became suddenly hazy for a split-second and then returned to normal-, a figure suddenly appeared in the air in front of them, dressed in a casual grey jacket and trousers, with a sword on his back and glasses slipping down his nose.

Even though she'd only seen him briefly, Niki recognised the man in front of her as the man who'd stabbed Sylar during the Kirby Plaza battle instantly; she'd heard a lot about him from Nathan- who'd relayed most of it second-hand from Peter- during the last week or so.

"Uh… Hiro, right?" she asked, looking uncertainly at the short Japanese man before her. "Wh… what are you doing here?"

"Need to see Peter Petrelli!" Hiro said, looking anxiously at her. "He going to _die _in…"

He trailed off and glanced over at Matt. "What date is it?"

"Date?" Matt said, looking in confusion at the Japanese man. "Uh… November 15th?"

"OK; Peter Petrelli going to _die _in two weeks!" Hiro protested, staring desperately at Matt. "_Where is he_?"

Matt, Niki and D.L. could only blink in surprise.

_OK… _Matt heard Niki think, that _was unexpected_.

Matt had to agree with that; whatever Hiro's powers were, he definitely wasn't expecting the man to tell him about something that was _going _to happen to them, especially not something that was going to only happen in a couple of _weeks_.

Where had he been to find out something like _that_?

And, more importantly, what could they do to _prevent _it?


	11. Revelations in a Hospital Room

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Firstly, sorry about the delay; writer's block struck again. Secondly, this is mainly a 'filler' chapter, so it's not as great as it could be, but the next one should feature things getting VERY interesting for all concerned parties…

Seeds of the Future

_D. L. Hawkins, Niki Sanders, Matt Parkman, Hiro Nakumara, Peter Petrelli  
New York, 2008 _

Hiro didn't wait to answer any of the questions that Matt and the others- he vaguely recognised one of them as Ando's Internet stripper and the other one as the man with the Kitty-Pryde-like power, but there was no time to think about that now- might have had; he had to save the life of the man who might be the most powerful hero on the planet, and he wasn't going to waste any more time than he had to. Before either of them could so much as try to stop him, he had charged past them and opened the door of the room before him, his eyes swiftly falling on Peter as the young ex-nurse stared listlessly out of his room window, arms by his sides and a resigned expression on his face as he lay in bed.

"Peter Petrelli!" Hiro smiled, punching the air in victory as the other man turned to look with an almost casual interest in his direction. "You _alive_! I _did it_! _Yatta_!"

"Uh… Hiro?" Peter said, looking in confusion at his acquaintance (He'd like to think of Hiro as a friend, but the truth was that his life would have been so much simpler if Hiro had never guided him to save the niece he'd ended up falling in love with). "Wh… what are you doing here? Last time I saw you…"

"Vanished from Kirby Plaza and arrived in future; interesting story- I tell you it some time," Hiro said, waving one hand dismissively before he looked at Peter with renewed intensity. "That not important right now; what important is that you _not _get killed by Sylar in two weeks because you get drunk and not care what happens to you!"

"_WHAT_?" three voices said from outside the door; Hiro had forgotten to close it behind him and his words were clearly audible by the rest of the 'specials' outside.

"Hold on a minute; he's going to get _killed_?" D.L. said, walking straight through the wall to stare incredulously at Hiro, Niki and Matt hurrying through the door shortly afterwards. "How the hell do you _know _that?"

"Met Matt in future; told me how Peter died when attacked outside bar!" Hiro explained, looking anxiously at the people that, even now, a part of him hoped would become his 'team' if they managed to save Peter's life. "Came back to save him; have to tell him-"

"Not to give up, am I right?" Peter put in, looking over at Hiro with a bleak expression. "Hiro… I appreciate the concern, but you really shouldn't have bothered; I'm not worth the effort."

"Excuse me?" D.L. said, looking incredulously at the young man before him. "Pete, we've been keeping an eye on this place for the last _week_ to keep you safe-"

"And I appreciate it when we're talking about keeping me away from the Company- who knows what they'd do with my kind of… ability?-, but when it comes to keeping me alive and free?" Peter interjected, looking bluntly over at the ex-convict. "Trust me, I'm not worth the effort."

"What; because you fantasise about making love to a niece you didn't even know _existed_ until she was sixteen?" Matt stated.

D.L. and Niki's jaws dropped as they turned to look at Matt, an equally stunned expression on Peter's face at the revelation that somebody else knew something he'd gone to such lengths to keep secret.

"You… you _know_?" Peter said, staring incredulously at Matt.

"What with you spending half your time alone thinking about it and the other half trying _not _to think about it, it'd have been hard for me _not _to know," Matt replied, looking slightly apologetically at Peter before he sighed slightly. "Look, Peter, you need to get over it; it's just a simple case of GSA, it's nobody's _fault_-"

"Sorry; what the hell does GSA mean?" D.L. asked, looking at Matt in confusion.

"It stands for genetic sexual attraction; it's a term used describing what happens when two long-lost relatives meet and fall in love before they actually find out that they're related," Matt explained, briefly glancing over at the ex-convict before he turned his attention back to Peter. "Look, that's not important right now, Pete; what _is _important is that you need to get _over _it. It's not exactly… acceptable, I know… but it's not like you're a _deliberate _pervert; it's just a rather complex bit of bad luck."

"If I could just-" Hiro began.

"Bad luck?" Peter repeated, looking incredulously at Matt, ignoring Hiro's attempts to speak up. "You call fantasizing about being _married_ to my niece- not just having sex with her; _marrying _her- the result of 'bad luck'? You call spending every waking moment torn between hating your brother for being her father and being grateful to him for the fact that she even exists a normal consequence of 'bad luck'? If that's just an example of 'bad luck', I'd really _hate _to see what you'd describe as absolutely _terrible _luck!"

"Look, can we just pause for a few moments and let Niki and me make sure we're on the same page as you guys here?" D.L. asked, looking between Matt and Peter as he tried to keep up with them. "Pete's in love with the niece who he only learned about when she was a teenager?"

"Oh, sure, let _everyone _know what a pervert I am, why don't you?" Peter groaned, looking briefly in frustration at Matt before he slumped back down into his bed, raising a hand to clutch his forehead as he closed his eyes. "As if my life wasn't bad enough…"

"Right, now that I've got that fact straight, will you _stop _focusing on that part of the issue here, Pete?" D.L. groaned as he looked at the man before him. "After Hiro here dragged himself all the way back through _time _to save your life, I'd think you'd get the picture that we don't exactly _care _about something that you didn't exactly choose to happen!"

"Can I please-" the ex-cubicle worker tried to interject once again, growing increasingly frustrated as everyone around him continued to ignore him.

"Will you all just get the picture; _I'm not worth it_!" Peter groaned as he stared in frustration at the group around his bed. "I nearly blew up New York-"

"The key word is _nearly_; you didn't do it in the end, and that's the important thing," Niki countered, looking resolutely at Peter as she finally spoke. "You were trying to stop that 'Sylar' person, Peter; you're _not_ a bad person, no matter what you might think about yourself for falling for the niece you didn't-"

"CLAIRE NOT PETER'S NIECE!" Hiro yelled, evidently finally losing his patience with the people before him as they continued to ignore him.

That, at least, managed to make the necessary impression on the rest of the people in the room; they all froze mid-sentence and turned to look incredulously at Hiro as he stared resolutely at everyone around him.

After a few moments, Peter finally broke the stunned silence that had settled over the room.

"Wh… what?" he asked, looking almost pleadingly at Hiro, clearly hoping that he'd heard the former Japanese cubicle worker correctly even as he simultaneously tried to stop himself from getting his hopes up before he knew the full details. "What did you just say?"

"Claire _not _your niece; her father somebody called… Lewis Rushton, I think it was," Hiro clarified, before he looked over at Matt with a slight smile. "You helped me find that out, actually."

"Sorry; I did?" Matt asked, looking in confusion at Hiro before he recalled what Peter had told them about this guy's powers, as well as what he'd mentioned earlier. "Wait a minute; are you saying that I helped you find out about… what you just told us… in the _future_?"

"Five years from now; you met me in Mr Issaac's loft, and then I help you put down Sylar," Hiro said, barely even paying attention to what he was saying as he looked at Peter. "He taken my power and killed future-me by that point, but Matt and I manage to take him out with telepathic attack and-"

"Hold on a minute; you fought that Sylar whackjobin the _future_?" D.L. interjected, looking in shock at Hiro. "No offence, but I thought you _stabbed _the son of a bitch right through the chest last time we saw him; how could he walk away from _that_ to fight you in… how far in the future were you, anyway?"

"Survived due to accelerated metabolism taken from speedster he killed whose power he can't use, and I fought him five years in future; again, long story going nowhere right now," Hiro dismissively, before he looked back at Peter. "Important thing is, Sylar used my powers to chance history; he _faked _evidence that Claire your niece-!"

"And why would he do that?" Peter said, looking at Hiro with an expression that could almost have been dismissive if it wasn't for the faint-but-nevertheless-present gleam of hope in his eyes at the possibilities that were being opened by Hiro's words. "What difference could it make if I thought that Claire was my niece when she wasn't?"

"Claire your _centre_," Hiro explained, as he drew his sword, holding it before him as he looked at Peter to demonstrate. "She provide focus for your power; what you centre yourself around to focus power and use it to full extent. I use Kensei sword as centre now, but before that, my centre was _person_; Charlie Andrews, waitress killed by Sylar to take her power."

"She had a power?" Niki asked, looking curiously at the Japanese man, evidently trying to focus on something she could understand more easily amid all this confusion. "Uh… if you don't mind my asking, what could she do?"

"Charlie had perfect memory; not relevant now," Hiro said, evidently wanting to avoid discussing that particular issue before he continued to stare resolutely at Peter. "What _is _relevant is that, _with _Charlie, my control improved greatly, but _without _her, my powers practically vanished until I claimed sword and gained new centre."

After a moment's pause, Matt nodded thoughtfully as he processed what Hiro had said.

"Yeah… I _think _I get what you're saying…" he said, as he looked at the Japanese man before him. "So… you're saying that, with Claire to give him something to focus on, Peter was able to control his powers more than he was able to without her…"

"And Sylar want to take _away _that control to make Peter easy to defeat!" Hiro concluded, a broad smile on his face as he looked at his fellow 'specials'. "Without Claire as centre, Peter unable to focus powers, and hence…"

After a moment's pause, Hiro looked resolutely at Peter, his normally jovial face displaying the same cold resolution that Ando, if he'd been present, would have recognised as the expression Hiro had worn when he'd first returned from the future where the bomb had gone off and he'd realised what he would need to do to avert that timeline.

"You _not _strong enough to stop Sylar without Claire," he said, glaring at Peter with an intensity that would have made even Sylar take a step back. "He knew that, and he created a lie; you _not _her uncle."

For a moment, Peter looked uncertain, clearly wondering whether Hiro was only lying out of some desperate need to save the man who'd helped him discover his 'mission' in life, even if it had only been thanks to some pointers from his future self, or if he was being honest about what he'd discovered.

If Hiro was lying, nothing had changed and he was still a pervert.

If Hiro was telling the _truth_, on the other hand…

With that thought in mind, Peter looked directly at Hiro, and, for a moment, Hiro felt something in his mind almost seem to 'shift' slightly as it responded to what Hiro could only assume was Peter's telepathy; evidently something in his mind was still somewhat 'sensitive' to mental investigation after all the time he'd spent in Matt's head in the future. Determined to make his point, Hiro forced himself to concentrate solely on what he and the future Matt had uncovered during their 'trip' into Sylar's mind, hoping that Peter's telepathy could tell that it was a real memory and not something that Hiro simply _wanted _to be real…

Finally, after a moment's silence, Peter's eyes widened, a broad grin spreading across his face as he looked at Hiro.

"She's _not _my niece…" he said, clearly unable to totally believe his luck as he looked at his friend.

* * *

_Matt Parkman and Sylar  
New York, 2013 _

"NO!" Sylar roared, suddenly hurling Matt away with his telekinesis as he sprang to his feet, an outraged expression on his face as the former policeman hit the wall opposite him before slumping towards the ground.

"Ugh…" Matt groaned, clutching his head as he looked in confusion at the suddenly raving (More so than usual, anyway) psychopath currently standing in the middle of the room.

"THEY WON'T WIN!" Sylar roared, apparently unconcerned about Matt's continued presence; he seemed to be talking to himself more than anything else at the moment. "IF I CAN'T DESTROY PETRELLI'S _SPIRIT_-"

Mid-sentence, he vanished, in a manner that Matt only had a moment to recognise as being identical to the manner in which Hiro vanished when he travelled in time…

Then something seemed to _wash _over him, and Matt Parkman knew nothing else.


	12. Moving On Out

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

Seeds of the Future

No sooner had those words crossed Peter's lips than he was suddenly sitting bolt upright in bed, a shocked expression on his and Hiro's faces as they looked at each other.

"You sense that, right?" Peter asked, looking inquiringly at the man who'd just fulfilled a dream that he'd thought had been forever out of his reach.

"I did," Hiro replied, looking grimly at Peter as he spoke. "Any suspects?"

"Based on what you just told me?" Peter responded, sitting up in bed and flinging the covers to one side, his feet hitting the ground as he looked at the Japanese man with a renewed intensity. "There's really only one candidate, isn't there?"

Before Hiro could respond, Peter had turned to look inquiringly at Matt, his arms folded and an authoritative expression on his face that was unquestionably at odds with his hospital-issue robe. "Where are my clothes?"

"Uh, I think the staff took them when you got in…" Matt said, looking slightly confused at his new friend's attitude (He could have read Peter's mind and learned what he and Hiro were talking about, of course, but he was trying to stop himself from giving into temptation and using his powers whenever he wanted to know about something; he didn't want to tally stop doing things the human way, after all). "I'll… uh… go and get them, shall I?"

"Hold on a moment," D.L. said, placing a hand on Matt's shoulder as he turned to look at Peter. "Quick question, Pete; you want people to know you're leaving?"

"Not yet," Peter replied, shaking his head.

"Right," D.L. said, nodding in understanding as he glanced over at Matt and his wife. "I'll go, then; nobody'll notice me gettin' them."

"How's that?" Peter asked, his resolved expression briefly vanishing in place of casual curiosity.

"My… 'talent'," D.L. replied, waving one hand through the bed by way of explanation. "I go through things."

"Cool," Peter said, nodding briefly at the man before he indicated the door, his authoritative expression once again in place. "Get moving; we don't have much time."

Nodding in acceptance of his friend's request ('Friend' was the only term that seemed appropriate, even after they'd only known each other for such a short length of time), D.L. turned and headed through the door of Peter's room.

"OK, seriously, while D.L.'s getting your stuff, any chance you can explain what's going on here for the rest of us?" Niki asked, looking in frustration at Peter (Matt briefly drew back at the evident hostility on her face; he was still working on understanding the full details about Niki and Jessica's 'relationship', but he knew enough to know that he didn't want to risk her other personality getting angry at him). "One minute you're all hyper about the fact that you're _not _in love with your niece any more- OK, that's not quite right, but you know what I mean anyway-, and the next you're acting as though something's going to blow up? Care to fill in the blanks here?"

"Oh…" Peter said, shaking his head slightly apologetically as he and Hiro exchanged briefly sheepish looks before he turned back to look at Niki and Matt. "To put it simply, Hiro and I detected a rift in time that we're certain was caused by Sylar."

Niki blinked.

"Excuse me?" she said, looking somewhat sceptically at the man she'd been guarding for the last few days of her life. "You 'detected a rift in time'? What is this, a science fiction TV show or something?"

"Niki," Matt said, sighing slightly as he turned to look at her, "your husband can walk through walls, you have superhuman strength and can literally become somebody else at the drop of a hat, and I can read minds; I think we pretty much already _are _as good as science-fiction. Peter and Hiro being able to detect this… 'rift'… is just something else to go on our list of 'weird things we can do', when you get down to it."

After a moment's silent reflection, Niki nodded.

"Point," she said simply, before she turned her attention back to Peter and Hiro. "So, what's all this about that Sylar guy causing the rift? I thought you said he only got that power in the fut… ure…"

Niki's voice trailed off as she realised the implications of what she'd just said.

"Oh God…" she whispered, as she stared in horror at Peter and Hiro. "He's from the _future_…"

"Exactly," Hiro said, nodding in confirmation at her. "He so arrogant, he probably think we unable to sense him like he sensed my change in future; must have come back to try and undo it."

"'Undo your change'?" Niki repeated in confusion. "What are you talking about; how could he 'undo your change'? He isn't going to attack _here_; from what I've heard of him he'd already be here if that was his plan…"

Peter shook his head.

"If Hiro's correct about how I fared against him in the original history- the history _he _remembers- he maybe just doesn't want to risk going up against a guy who'd be able to hold his own against him," he explained. "He's tough, but he's also got serious issues about power from what I've gathered in my fights with him; he wants to be the strongest, but if I get a good grasp of my power, there's no way for him to know which of us would walk away in a head-to-head confrontation."

"Which means…" Matt said, his voice low as the horror of his realisation crossed his face, "that there's only _one _person he could be going after…"

"Exactly," Peter said, nodding in confirmation at the former cop as inspiration struck him. "He's going for Claire."

Before Niki could respond to that, D.L. walked back into the room, Peter's clothes in his hands, instantly tossing the garments to the empathy before he took in the horrified expression on his wife's face.

"Take it I missed something bad?" he said.

"You… you could say that," Niki said, nodding slightly as she looked back at D.L. "We-"

"Look, sorry to break this all up, but maybe you could fill him in… outside?" Peter asked, indicating the door to his room as he stood up. "I'd just like a moment alone to change; you can fill D.L. in on the situation while I'm getting ready."

"Sure," Matt said, nodding in understanding at the empathy as he indicated the door. "Come on; I'll fill in the blanks while Pete's getting ready."

As the other four walked out of the room, Peter stared at the shirt in his hands- amazing that all this stuff had been washable after what it had gone through, really; he'd have to remember to recommend this stuff to his friends when this was over-, reflecting on his next course of action.

He might be gaining a bit more confidence in the use of his powers with Hiro's revelation that his desire to be with Claire _wasn't _perverted, but, unlike Sylar, he wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he'd never require help; having access to several powers didn't make him unstoppable, it just made him harder to stop. One-on-one in a fight with Sylar, regardless of what Hiro had seen in the future, Peter knew that the confrontation could go either way.

With back-up available to him, on the other hand…

Peter allowed himself a slight smile at the thought.

No two ways about it; he _definitely _preferred the odds in that situation.

A few moments later, Peter walked out of the hospital room, fully dressed, to see Hiro, Matt, Niki and D.L. standing before him, all of them looking at him with very resolute expressions on their faces.

"Got the quick and ugly version of the situation we're dealing with right now," D.L. said by way of explanation as Peter looked inquiringly at him. "Assume you've got a plan for tracking this Sylar whacko?"

"I do," Peter responded, nodding back at D.L. with a slight smile to express his gratitude before he assumed a more controlled expression and continued to speak. "It's simple enough; Hiro and I still have a basic sense of where Sylar teleported to, and knowing him he probably went exactly to where Claire is at the moment-"

"How could he know that?" Niki interjected.

"He from _future_, remember?" Hiro pointed out as he glanced over at Niki. "Who knows what powers he taken by then; may even have acquired power of finding people?"

Matt's eyes widened in horror at the implications of Hiro's comment- was it possible that Sylar had killed _Molly_ in the future?-, but he pushed his initial revulsion aside to focus on the matter at hand.

"And… you think you can use the… rift… he created when he arrived to find him?" he asked, looking inquiringly at Hiro and Peter.

Peter nodded.

"Pretty sure, anyway," he said, smiling slightly at the cop before him. "Don't worry; we'll get Nathan, come up with a quick plan, and get to wherever Sylar's tracked Claire to in a matter of seconds."

Noting Niki's somewhat uncertain expression- evidently she disliked the idea of waiting when someone's life was at stake-, Peter looked over at her apologetically. "I don't like it either, but Claire can look after herself long enough for us to get there, and we're not doing anybody any favours if we try going up against somebody as powerful as Sylar without even the _basics _of a plan."

After a moment's contemplation, Niki nodded in acceptance.

"Right then," Peter said, smiling slightly as he looked over at the other three while he and Hiro extended their arms slightly. "Let's get moving; the sooner we can come up with a plan, the better."

* * *

AN: And now, next chapter, we move into the final home stretch; it's the Heroes VS Sylar, united as one 'team' for the first time in their lives. Can they take out a Sylar from the future who actually has access to some of _their_ powers?

You'll have to wait and see…


	13. Round One: Claire VS Sylar

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

Seeds of the Future

_Noah and Claire Bennet  
New Orleans, Louisiana_

As Claire lay on the bed in the hotel room that she was currently staying in with her father, she was once again unable to stop herself from wondering how her life had come to this.

Had it really only been a couple of months since her biggest issue had been whether or not Brody Mitchum thought she was pretty? It was hard to believe; so much had happened since then that she almost felt like a completely different person. She'd died- literally _died_; her heart had stopped beating and she was confident she'd not been breathing- on at least two separate occasions, she'd seen her hand get chewed up by the waste disposal and become as good as new only a few minutes later, she'd witnessed her ex-best-friend get the top of her head sliced off by a whackjob who thought his victim was her, she'd been at practically ground zero of a potential nuclear explosion and didn't even have a slight case of skin cancer to show for it, she'd met her biological family, she'd jumped out a window and kept on walking, and…

Claire sighed.

It seemed that, no matter what she did, she always ended up coming back to this last, most vital detail.

She'd fallen in love with her uncle.

She hadn't known who he was, she hadn't even so much as kissed him, he was at least a decade older than her even _without _the fact that he was related to her… but the fact remained that, even now, almost a week since she'd last seen him for what she was confident would be the last time, she still couldn't forget how his lips had felt when she'd pressed them against hers for the first and only time they'd kissed, while he'd been lying in that hospital bed and she'd been preparing to leave his life forever…

God, why couldn't she just _stop _obsessing over this? A relationship between them would have been doomed right from the start; they'd have lost their families, they'd never have been able to get married…

Hell, they'd never even be able to have their own _kids_ because of the risks of genetic defects due to them being too closely related…

And what the Hell was she doing thinking about having _kids _with him at her age? She was barely sixteen years old, for crying out loud; she should _not _be fantasizing about having kids with a man at least a decade older than she was, even if he _wasn't _her uncle!

No, the best thing that she could do right now was try and get over this whole mess, and put all thoughts of Peter and what could never be out of her mind. Her father- _adopted_ father; she had never before wished so strongly that he was her biological one- was already making arrangements with her mother and Lyle- still in a hotel back in Odessa- for them to move on to another city where they would hopefully be able to escape the Company's attempts to track them down, and she would never have to see, hear, think, or talk about the man that she knew she would always love even as she knew she could never be with him the way she wanted to be…

_Stop _doing _that, you _idiot! she mentally berated herself, even as a somewhat sadistic part of her couldn't help but appreciate the fact that she still remembered Peter with at least some degree of fondness.

Loving him may have left her feeling terrible, but at least she had _known _him…

It was like John Smith had said in that _Pocahontas_ movie she'd loved as a child; when he'd been facing execution on suspicion of killing Pocahontas's Indian 'fiance', Smith had simply told her "_I'd rather die tomorrow than live a hundred years without knowing you_".

It was such an accurate description of her love for Peter that she instantly elevated the movie back to near the top of her 'favourite films' list.

Even if the memory of Peter brought her nothing but pain for the rest of her life, she would always treasure those few brief weeks when she hadn't known how they were related to each other and been able to love him _without _feeling like a perverted

"Claire-bear?" her father's voice said from outside her door, drawing her attention away from thoughts of having sex with her uncle (Having sex? Such a pathetic description of what she _really _wanted to do with him…) to look back at him. "You OK?"

Despite her bleak mood, Claire managed a slight smile.

"Yeah… I'm fine, " she said, nodding reassuringly at her father. "Just… y'know… a lot's been happening recently; takes a while to take it all in."

"I know," her father said (She could _never _think of Nathan Petrelli as her father; even without the fact that she so strongly wished he wasn't her father as it would mean she'd have a chance with Peter, he hadn't even really _tried _to try and make a commitment to her), smiling slightly at her as he sat down on the bed. "I've contacted your mother and Lyle; they'll be joining us here as soon as they can, and then we'll be moving on."

"Where to?" Claire asked, looking inquiringly at him.

"Well…" her father began, only to trail off mid-sentence as he tilted his head to one side. "Do you hear that?"

Tilting her head to one side, Claire could only nod slowly as she heard what her father was referring to. It wasn't exactly a sound, really- it was more of a faint pressure in her ears- but it was accompanied by a faint humming sound that made it painfully clear that there was definitely something out of the ordinary taking place right now…

Then the sound suddenly ceased just as somebody appeared in the middle of the room, and Claire's heart almost stopped beating from shock.

_Sylar_…

He was back, he was apparently at full health, and he'd somehow acquired some kind of teleportation ability (She just hoped it hadn't come from that time-travelling guy Peter had told her about; he'd sounded like a pretty decent guy, and she really didn't want to have _more _good people die because this psycho wanted her dead) on top of everything that he'd had before…

It was official; she was in definite trouble this time around.

Claire had no idea _how _the man who'd tried to kill her could be standing there in front of her after what he'd been through the last time she'd seen him- that 'Hiro' guy had practically _impaled _Sylar on his sword, and her healing was definitely _not _something he could do; how was he still alive?- but right now, her immediate problem was thinking of some way to get away from him that didn't involve being in a bodybag with her brain missing.

Turning to look in her direction, the power-stealing psychopath simply smirked casually as he took in the sight of the two of them, sitting on the bed and staring at him in shock.

"Right on target," he said, smirking slightly as he raised one hand glowing with a strange blue energy (_His ability to freeze stuff solid_, the part of Claire's brain that wasn't currently paralysed with terror thought; her father had told her what powers Sylar had demonstrated to date in case she ever ran into him again and needed to figure out a way to get away from him), his eyes as cold as the ice he was clearly preparing to hurl at her. "Time to die now, little Claire…"

Before Claire could even try to attack, her father had leapt forward, sending Sylar hurtling to the ground just as he launched the burst of ice at where Claire was currently sitting, throwing off his aim and causing the ice burst to strike the ceiling. Claire barely even stopped to think; taking advantage of the momentary distraction, and knowing that Sylar almost certainly wouldn't bother killing her father- the man was focused only on acquiring new powers; he'd only killed normal people when they were in his way, and in all fairness, Noah Bennet wasn't going to keep Sylar occupied for more than a few seconds-, she headed for the hotel window and dived out of it with a running jump, instinctively twisting her body to limit the damage as she hit the ground; having done this kind of thing once already, she had a better idea of what to do to get through this kind of stunt relatively intact.

She'd heal whatever happened, of course, but with Sylar currently after her and apparently able to teleport if he wanted to, the less time she spent immobilised the better; any distance she could put between this bastard and her skull was welcome in the current situation.

Picking herself up, Claire only spared a moment to glance up at her hotel window- currently apparently normal, although Claire had a strong feeling that the situation inside the room was anything but that- before she turned around and charged down the street, grateful that her cheerleading had at least kept her in good shape over the years. As she rapidly hurried down the street away from the hotel, she vaguely heard something that sounded like glass breaking behind her, but she refused to stop and look behind her; right now, with no real idea what Sylar was capable of speed-wise, every moment counted.

Glancing desperately around herself for something that she could use as a weapon or a means to defend herself, Claire once again found herself wishing that she'd kept the gun that Peter had given her; it likely wouldn't have done much good, given what she'd heard form the other people at the Kirby Plaza battle about Sylar literally _throwing _bullets back at the person holding the gun, but at least it would buy her a few more seconds. Diving into a nearby alleyway, Claire grabbed a nearby dustbin lid and hurried on, some vague idea in her mind about using it as a makeshift shield if Sylar tried to attack her again, simultaneously grabbing what looked like a half-broken bottle of wine in her other hand to use as a makeshift weapon.

Reaching the end of the alley, Claire quickly turned to the right and pressed her back up against the wall, her makeshift weapon clutched in her left hand as she listened out for Sylar's footsteps, fighting to bring her heart rate at least somewhat under control. Sylar may possess enhanced hearing, but she was at least fairly sure that mind-reading remained something that he couldn't do, which at least gave her a _chance _at taking him by surprise…

"I know you're here, Claire," that chillingly confident voice said from the alleyway that she had just run down, once again reminding Claire of that night at Homecoming when she'd first met him and Peter (Even if Sylar hadn't spoken then, his voice still matched the presence he'd created in her mind during that particular situation). "I can hear your heart… your nervous, scared little heart as it beats and patters like a drum…"

He chuckled sadistically as he continued to walk. "I could almost _dance _to it, really."

Almost as soon as that last sentence had reached her ears, Sylar stepped out of the alleyway, only for Claire to spin around and slam the trash can lid into his face, following it up by practically stabbing him in the chest with the broken bottle in her other hand. The bottle failed to penetrate particularly far- a combination of Claire's inexperience in exerting force and the fact that it was partly blocked by Sylar's ribcage-, but it was still deep enough to leave Sylar screaming in pain.

"You think _that _hurt, you son of a _bitch_?" Claire retorted, glaring up at Sylar as he screamed in pain. "Try _this_ on for size!"

Acting purely on instinct and rage, unconcerned about anything else, Claire launched a powerful punch at Sylar's face, hitting him directly in the nose even as she felt like she'd broken her thumb; she'd been clutching it in her fingers when she'd landed the punch in an attempt to give her attack more power. Holding her thumb away from her hand as it began to knit itself back together, Claire launched a quick kick between Sylar's legs- she could only prey she'd hit her target; the last thing the world needed was Sylar retaining the ability to reproduce- before she turned around and began to run once again.

She noted with some relief that she was at least in a more crowded street at the moment- maybe Sylar would be a bit less encouraged to use his powers in public; he may be powerful, but sheer weight of numbers might be enough to put him down if things got ugly enough- but she wasn't holding out much hope for it; who was to say he wasn't approaching the point where he didn't care about being caught? After all, from what her father had told her, Sylar had seemingly had no problem with attacking an FBI prison transport when he'd gone after Ted Sprauge's powers, despite the prospect of them being heavily armed; the fact that his attack had consisted of flipping the van with his telekinesis didn't change the fact that things could have turned out to be far more unpleasant for him than they'd gone…

Then she felt something grab her and she cursed; he must have recovered faster than she'd expected. Spinning around to glare at Sylar, she raised her fist to prepare to punch the bastard who seemed to take a sadistic amount of pleasure in making her life a total hell…

Only to see that there was nobody there.

"Like it?" Sylar's voice said from out of thin air, clearly enjoying the fear that rapidly spread across her face as she realised the lack of anything behind her. "I picked up this little trick a couple of years from now when I took out a guy who could turn invisible; _very _useful little trick to have when you don't want people to see what you're doing, let me tell you…"

Claire's eyes widened in shock as she registered what Sylar had just said.

He'd acquired this invisibility a couple of years _from _now?

"You're… you're from the _future_?" she said, desperately scanning the street around her for something she could use to defend herself; she was definitely _not _willing to try and call for help against a foe that nobody could even see, even if she had any faith that they could do anything against somebody as powerful as Sylar was.

"Quite," Sylar said, before he jerked Claire towards him, his voice low as she felt his breath near her left ear. "And let me tell you, I do _not _appreciate having to come back to do this; it was really far simpler just to make one little tweak and let it spread from there, but that idiotic Japanese man just _had _to jump to the future and find out what had happened, didn't he…?"

Claire didn't know what Sylar was talking about, and right now she didn't particularly care; all that mattered to her was surviving. With Sylar's invisibility making it look like she was simply standing there, Claire rammed one fist into the area where she assumed Sylar's groin was located, smiling slightly as she felt him draw back from the pain, and then began to run once again, desperately heading towards another alley; maybe if she could get him into a confined location, she could get an advantage.

Turning left into another alley, she smiled slightly as she saw an open door in front of her, leading into what looked like the kitchen area of the condemned hotel she'd seen from the street; there'd at least be _something _she could use inside there. Hurrying into the kitchen, she quickly scanned her surroundings, relieved when she saw that most of the culinary equipment was still inside there; evidently the hotel had only recently closed and some people just hadn't gotten around to removing everything yet. Grabbing a large butcher's knife, Claire spun around to stare at the door before her, straining her ears to listen for the sound of Sylar's footsteps; even if he was invisible, he had to make _some _kind of sound when approaching her.

All she needed was to know where to stab, and she'd see how this bastard dealt with a knife in the gut.

A part of Claire was briefly shocked at herself- was she really willing to _kill _somebody, no matter what he'd done to her over the years?-, but she shook it off; after pulling a shard of glass out of the dead body of the man she loved (Blood relation or not be damned), she couldn't exactly say she was unjustified in wanting to attack the man who'd done that in the first place…

It all happened so fast that she was never sure how it had happened; one minute she was clutching the knife in her hand, and the next moment her wrist had been practically broken and Sylar had pinned her up against some of the empty cupboards behind her, his grin as he shed his invisibility and reappeared in front of her one of the most terrifying things she'd ever seen.

"Nice try," he said, indicating the knife that now lay on the floor at his feet as he stared grimly back at her, before shaking his head. "Too bad it didn't work; I can't fly like your precious hero's brother can, but I _can_ lift myself if I want to. You can't hear what isn't actually touching the floor, after all…"

_Oh God_… Claire thought desperately to herself, feeling like she was going to start crying as she stared at the psychotic former watchmaker before her. _This is it… he's going to kill me… it's really over_…

"Time to die now, Claire," Sylar said, smirking as he raised his left hand, pointing it at her forehead just as he had done when he had killed Jackie all those weeks ago (Only weeks? So much had happened since then), and began to cut into her forehead with his telekinesis, blood starting to trickle into her left eye…

"Actually, I've got something to say about that," a familiar voice said from off to the side.

Claire barely had time to process what she'd just heard before Sylar was sent flying off to one side, simultaneously releasing his grip on her as she fell to the ground while her would-be killer crashed into the wall opposite the door.

Looking back at the door she'd entered by, Claire could only stare at the sight of Peter Petrelli standing in the door that she had just entered by, one hand outstretched before him and the other hand clenched into a fist, his long fawn coat flapping in the air around him as he glared at Sylar in a manner that Claire had never seen on his face before.

She'd thought that Peter had hated Sylar before, but now…

Now it looked like he absolutely _loathed _the man.


	14. Round Two: Peter VS Sylar

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: To mention in advance to anyone who thinks that Peter's control of his powers is greater than it was in the show at this point, you have to take into account that, with the revelation of the truth about his and Claire's connection, he's regained the 'centre' that Future Sylar had been trying to deprive him of, thus resolving his inner conflict about the 'inappropriateness' of his feelings for Claire and leaving Peter with a great deal more control over his powers than he had possessed prior to this revelation (Although, of course, Sylar's greater experience means that the outcome of the fight still isn't set in stone, no matter _how _skilled Peter is)

Seeds of the Future

_Peter Petrelli, Claire Bennet & Sylar  
New Orleans, Louisiana_

"P… Peter?" Claire gasped, staring in shock up at her uncle- _God_, she had never wished so badly to belong to another family before- as he turned to look at her, lowering his hand as he walked over to help her to her feet.

"Hey, Claire," he said, smiling warmly at her, as he crouched down slightly to take her hand. "You OK?"

"I… I'm fine…" Claire replied, still slightly dazed as Peter helped her to her feet. "Just… y'know…"

She couldn't even finish the sentence, simply waving a hand at the faint traces of blood that remained on her forehead from where Sylar had attempted to slice open her skull.

"Yeah…" Peter replied, looking briefly at it with a slightly anxious expression before he smiled softly at her, only for his expression to harden once again as he looked behind her. "Go."

"What?" Claire said, looking at him in confusion. "Go? Peter, what are you-?"

"_Get down_!" Peter yelled, grabbing her in his arms and diving towards the floor just as a burst of ice flew past above them.

* * *

"YOU!" Sylar roared at Peter as he got back to his feet, the former nurse's fists clenched as he stared at the man from the future who had tried to destroy his life.

If Peter hadn't been so focused on defeating Sylar before the psychopath could hurt Claire in a manner that she couldn't heal from, he might have laughed at the irony of the situation; all his life, he'd felt like he was only second-best compared to Nathan, and yet two different men from the future

"Me," he replied grimly as he stared at his enemy, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the man who, if Hiro was right- and he had no reason to doubt the Japanese man; his future self certainly hadn't steered him wrong when he'd originally told him to save Claire, after all-, had come back from the future twice for the sole purpose of ruining Peter's life. "Surprised to see me?"

Peter had to give Sylar credit; it evidently took a great deal to leave this guy flustered, even after spending the better part of the last few years- or the next few years; English really wasn't a good language for discussing time travel with- in a prison cell with his powers as good as gone. Here he was, in the past, facing the man who he'd gone to such lengths to defeat, and yet he appeared to be acting as though he'd encountered nothing more major than a minor obstacle in the road while attempting to reach his destination.

Admittedly, Peter didn't exactly like being regarded as nothing more than a minor obstacle, but if it meant Sylar's focus was on him rather than Claire, he could accept that; he knew that Claire was far from weak, but if it was a choice between her and him, he was definitely more capable of defending himself.

"You can't win," Sylar stated, a broad smile on his face as he raised his hands, glowing blue with the energy of his ice-throwing powers as he studied his enemy. "You know that, don't you?"

"Last time I checked, the future's far from being fixed; I'd say I've still got a fairly good chance of taking you out," Peter countered, raising his hands and, after a moment's focus, tapping into Sylar's ice powers himself (It wasn't that hard, really; the man already sent such a seriously disturbing chill down Peter's spine whenever he saw the guy that generating ice because of him felt almost natural). "Let's _go_."

Instantly, the two men thrust their hands forward, the blasts of ice that leapt from their palms almost instantly meeting in mid-air to collide, throwing small fragments of ice and snow off to either side. Quickly shifting tactics, Peter closed his eyes for a split-second, gathered his concentration- focusing his attention on remaining where and when Claire was, rather than losing focus and heading somewhere else- and then teleported to stand directly beside Sylar, following up his shift in location with a quick punch from Niki's superhuman strength, sending the ex-watchmaker staggering backwards with a rapidly-growing bruise on his cheek.

"How about that?" Peter retorted, allowing himself a slight smile as Sylar raised a hand to rub the bruise in shock. "Get the picture, Sylar; _I know_."

Sylar's eyes widened in rage as he looked at Peter, his eyes briefly flicking to where Claire was still located behind them (Although Peter was confident that she was back on her feet by now; aside from falling in love with him- God, now that he knew she wasn't his niece, he had no idea _what _he had done to deserve her- she wasn't an idiot) before settling back on Peter, realisation clearly hitting him.

"Yeah, that's it," Peter said, clenching his fists as he glared at Sylar once again, his eyes narrowing as he planned his next move. "So… ready to quit _now_?"

"NEVER!" Sylar roared, as he literally lifted his feet off the floor and began to charge towards Peter. For a moment, Peter nearly couldn't move in horror- had Sylar killed _Nathan _in his future?- but then he realised that Sylar wasn't _actually _flying; he seemed to just be using his telekinesis to keep himself up in the air, judging by the rigidity of his movements and the relatively slow speed that he was coming towards Peter at.

Peter didn't even hesitate; tapping into his brother's power, he rose a few inches off the ground and then charged towards Sylar at maximum speed, grabbing the killer by the waist and sending him flying into the wall opposite, instantly flying backwards a few feet to land on the ground in front of Sylar, his eyes automatically narrowing as he raced through his mental arsenal for his next likely weapon.

"You think… _that_ can stop me?" Sylar gasped as he staggered back to his feet, glaring back at Peter with an intense glare that easily rivalled Peter's own. "Trust me… you have _no _idea what I'm capable of!"

Before Peter could react, Sylar waved his hand at Peter, leaving Peter suddenly feeling as though every bone in his body had suddenly decided to give up the ghost and collapse in on itself… this really didn't feel good… he felt like he'd suddenly lost all sense of gravity and was just _falling_…

Then, much to his surprise, he felt his bones and muscles begin to solidify, as though whatever had just been turning them to liquid had suddenly decided to reverse itself.

_No_… Peter realised, as he began to stagger back to his feet. _It's not what caused it turning back on itself… it's something else… something _warm_…_

Glancing over to his left, he smiled slightly as he saw Claire, still staring at him and Sylar in evident confusion at what the two men were doing fighting over her in this situation, but still clearly reluctant to leave Peter to manage by himself.

If anything, her refusal to abandon him, even if she still thought he was her uncle, meant more to Peter than he could have ever effectively expressed- and that wasn't _just _because her close proximity to him was helping his body to recover from whatever Sylar had tried to do to him; even if he'd been using someone else's healing power right now, he still would have been grateful for her presence.

It was like Hiro had told him; Claire was his centre, keeping him focused amid the chaos of his ever-hard-to-control powers.

"_Cheating _BITCH!" Sylar roared, thrusting one hand towards Claire even as the last of Peter's bones restored themselves to their original solid form, sending her flying backwards moments before Peter 'activated' his flight power and charged towards Sylar once again.

He knew that, whatever Sylar did to Claire, she'd be all right so long as he didn't try and take her brain like he had so many other victims; as much as he wanted to make sure that she was OK, right now, his main objective was keeping this guy off-balance and away from Claire until his back-up arrived.

He just hoped that it was going to be here sooner rather than later; he'd managed to keep Sylar off-balance so far because the man hadn't been expecting him to have this kind of control over his powers, but if he gave the guy enough chance to think about this fight, he might actually start using something Peter _wasn't _expecting.

That bit where he felt like his bones were practically _melting _inside him had been disturbing enough; he was _not _in the mood to deal with something like that happening to him again…

* * *

For a moment, Claire could barely process what had just happened; she'd been too surprised at Peter's initial appearance out of seemingly nowhere to fully process what was happening in the fight going on above her before she'd looked up to see Peter's limbs look like they'd turned into rubber, and she'd barely had enough time to move towards him to let her power heal him before Sylar had thrown her back once again.

Even as she flew through the air, Claire made a mental note to work on her awareness of her surroundings; hadn't that time when Brody Mitchum nearly broke her neck after he ran into her taught her _anything _about learning what was going on around her? Just because she'd heal from this didn't mean it wasn't going to put her out of action for a while at least…

Before she had even hit the wall, however, Claire suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her, halting her mid-fall and leaving her only slightly winded and startled as she looked up at the face of a bald man with dark sin and an expression of at least mild pain on his face.

"Goddamn bullets…" he grunted as he looked at Claire, the sounds of combat between Peter and Sylar fading as the two men presued each other further into the old hotel. "Mustn't be back to my peak yet; that _really _hurt…"

"Wh… what?" Claire asked, staring up at the man who'd grabbed her in confusion; she vaguely recognised him from the Kirby Plaza confrontation, but she couldn't for the life of her recall his name. "Who are _you_?"

"D.L. Hawkins," the man replied, smiling slightly down at her as he jerked his thumb at the door Claire, Peter and Sylar had entered the room by earlier. "I'm with the back-up."

"The… the _what_?" Claire repeated, as she looked at the door just as a mismatched group of people came hurrying into the room, Claire instantly recognising Officer Parkman and her father (God, why did he _always _have to ruin things for her where Peter was concerned?), with the Japanese man and the blonde woman with them vaguely registering with her as having been present at the Kirby Plaza battle.

"Hi," Officer Parkman said, nodding slightly at her with a reassuring smile on her face, even as the way that he held one hand to his chest made it clear that he wasn't in the best shape right now. "Sorry we're a bit late; it took a while for Peter and Hiro to get everyone here."

"Wh-what?" Claire asked, looking in confusion at the gathered people around her. "What's going on here? What the hell is a _future _version of Sylar doing trying to _kill _me?"

"I ruin his plan in future; he come back to past to try and change it back!" Hiro explained, grinning enthusiastically at her as he indicated the people around them. "Sylar try to change your history; when I come back-"

A loud crash from outside the door and apparently up another level interrupted Hiro mid-sentence, prompting the new arrivals to look anxiously over at each other before Hiro nodded in resolve.

"I go up after Peter; we keep Sylar busy until you all get there," he said simply, looking back over at Matt as he spoke. "Remember; focus, and you _really _rock!"

"That was five _years_-" Matt began, only for Hiro to close his eyes, focus, and suddenly vanish from right in front of the group, leaving Claire, if possible, even more confused than she'd been before.

What could Hiro have learned in the future that would make Sylar come back in time to kill her _now_?

* * *

"Huh," D.L. said, blinking slightly in surprise as he looked at where the Japanese man had been standing only a few moments ago. "Wonder if you ever get used to that?"

"Him just popping in and out of your life like that?" Nathan asked, looking back at D.L. with a slight smile. "Trust me, you don't; he showed up in my life on at least three occasions without letting me know he was coming and it was _always _a surprise, and that was when he _wasn't_ teleporting."

"OK, look, based on what we're hearing from down here, maybe we can save the conversations for later and see about getting up to join Peter and Hiro sooner rather than later?" Matt asked, looking over urgently at the rest of the group. "I mean, I may not really know what _I _can do, but after seeing what Sylar's capable of _now_, I really don't want a _future _version of him hanging around here for too long."

"Agreed," Nathan said, his old soldier instincts instantly taking over; regardless of how he might feel about his powers, right now his brother needed him to accept his abilities and the abilities of those he was with if he was going to survive. "It's pretty dark out in the alley back there, and I saw a few windows; I'll fly up and see if I can track Peter and Sylar from there. Niki, you're our strongest, you take the lead and head up the stairs, maybe you can take Sylar by surprise while he's busy with Peter; D.L., Matt, Claire, you three stay behind her and do what you can-"

"I'll stick with Niki," D.L. interjected, glaring slightly at Nathan as he stepped forward. "May not be at full health right now, but if I phase through something I can solidify enough to hurt it; should be enough to make this bastard think about what he's trying to pull."

After studying the man before him for a moment to better estimate what he might or might not be capable of, Nathan nodded.

"All right," he said, as he looked at the ex-con. "If you think that you can handle the exertion, you're with Niki; just be careful."

"Always am," D.L. replied with a slight smile (Nathan decided not to comment that clearly he hadn't been careful enough if he'd been caught; he'd promised Peter when he'd first met D.L. that he wouldn't hold the man's past against him, and he was _going _to stick to that).

"I don't suppose there's any possibility _anyone _would be willing to tell me what's going on here?" Claire asked, looking impatiently around at the rest of the group that had gathered to come to her rescue. "I mean, I'm grateful that I'm worth the effort to all of you, of course, but-"

The sound of two simultaneous yells coming from upstairs- one of them a yell of anger in a voice that sounded like Hiro's while the other seemed to be Sylar screaming in pain- broke off any further conversation for the immediate moment, as the small group of 'specials' exchanged brief glances with each other before they hurried out of the kitchen and up the stairs towards where Peter and Sylar were currently fighting.

Claire's questions would have to wait until later; at the moment, they had an empathic mimic to save and a power-stealing ex-watchmaker to take care of.


	15. Round Three: Heroes VS Sylar

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

Seeds of the Future

_Peter Petrelli, Hiro Nakamura & Sylar  
__New Orleans, Louisiana_

As Hiro materialised in a corridor approximately two levels above where he had been standing originally, he wasn't surprised to witness Peter and Sylar slugging it out with blows that looked like they could have left other men bleeding on the floor already.

Given what Hiro had learned about Sylar's abilities on the way over here, he was prepared to guess that Sylar was only able to stay standing via the use of his telekinesis to create a kind of low-level force field around himself to help him cope with Peter's own raw strength, but it was clear from his glowing blue hands that he was also tapping into some of his other abilities into the bargain. From what Hiro could see, Sylar was using his ice-generating powers to create some slight spikes around his knuckles, the spikes digging into Peter's skin every time Sylar's fists made contact and leaving the empathic mimic bloodied and battered; just because Peter could heal from the injuries nearly instantly didn't mean they wouldn't hurt.

Hiro couldn't permit that; Peter was the more powerful of the two- after all, Sylar had to go to a lot of effort just to acquire even _one _new power, but Peter could do everything that Sylar could do and more just by standing near him- but with Sylar's years of extra experience, if Peter didn't have the time to come up with an effective plan of attack that wouldn't mean anything.

The Japanese man didn't hesitate; charging forward- he didn't want to risk slowing time; given that Sylar possessed his future self's powers he might have been able to sense the distortion caused by Hiro using them and Hiro would thus lose his element of surprise, or the time-bending trick might not even have worked against him in the first place-, Hiro kicked Sylar sharply in the back, following up the attack by slashing out at the former watchmaker with his sword, a grim expression on his face as he left Sylar with a deep cut on his chest that the villain stared incredulously at as he staggered back slightly from the unexpected impact.

"You _kill _me once, Sylar!" Hiro yelled, his eyes narrowed as he glared angrily at the man who had stolen and used his powers to twist history for no other reason than to benefit himself and justify his own belief in his superiority over others. "You _not _succeed this time!"

Before Sylar could reply again, Hiro had thrust his sword forward to impale Sylar in the shoulder, the blade subsequently continuing through the killer's shoulder to stick into the wall behind him.

"Thanks, Hiro," Peter said from behind him, Hiro glancing behind just in time to see the empath get to his feet and stand just behind him. "My turn now."

Yanking the sword out of Sylar's shoulder with a simple 'flick' of his telekinesis, Peter followed up the attack with a powerful punch to Sylar's face, before he stepped back slightly and faded into invisibility in the same moment.

Even as Hiro raised his sword to glare at Sylar, the psychopath was chuckling in amusement as he studied his surroundings; clearly, he regarded Hiro as a relatively minor annoyance at the moment, a fact that Hiro wasn't sure if he should feel pleased or annoyed about.

"Do you really think something like _that's _going to stop me from finding you?" he said, smirking slightly as he studied his surroundings, casually waving one hand to pin Hiro to the wall with his telekinesis. "I may not be able to _see _you, but I can hear your _heartbeat_-"

Whatever Sylar was about to say was cut off by a powerful punch to the back of his head, sending the man staggering forward as Niki stood in the centre of the corridor, D.L. just behind her.

"You _really _need to pay more attention to what's going on around you, asshole," she said grimly, reminding Hiro more of what he'd heard about her 'Jessica' side rather than Niki herself. "Now then, how about a couple of lessons in manners?"

Before Sylar could voice his opinion on that suggestion, Niki had taken the decision out of his hands with a resounding uppercut, sending the serial killer crashing into the ceiling of the corridor before he hit the ground once again.

Just as Niki was moving towards him to launch another punch, however, Sylar thrust out one hand in a clearly desperate move that nevertheless succeeded in sending the former internet stripper flying backwards, Nathan and D.L. only narrowly avoiding her as they hurried along the corridor. Matt, unfortunately, wasn't as lucky, and swiftly found himself acting as an unwilling cushion to the still-somewhat-unstable 'strongman' of their makeshift group as the two of them hit the floor of the corridor, leaving Nathan and D.L. to stare at Sylar as he got to his feet before them, his fists clenched and blood trickling out of the left corner of his mouth.

"You don't _seriously _think you're going to beat me, do you?" he asked, smirking slightly at the two men before him, unaware or unconcerned about the fact that Hiro was already staggering to his feet behind him. "I have powers you've never even _dreamed _of-"

"Really?" Nathan countered, raising an eyebrow as he hovered up to a point a few inches above the ground. "Can you do _this_?"

With that said, he charged towards Sylar, his speed- even with the relatively limited space available for him to accelerate in- proving sufficient to ram the former watchmaker into the wall at the other end of the corridor. As Sylar gasped in shock, the breath forced out of his body by Nathan's attack, Nathan's feet once again made contact with the ground as he launched his own punch at Sylar's face. While not as damaging as Niki's own blow had been, the attack was still enough to cause Sylar to stagger once again.

"You-" he began weakly.

"Know something, Sylar?" Peter's voice said from out of apparently empty air, moments before the watchmaker felt something grab his shoulders and hurl him into a wall, reappearing before Sylar as he turned to glare at his adversary. "You talk _way _too much."

Growling in rage, Sylar thrust out one hand, clearly attempting to exert his telekinesis against his adversary, only for Peter to counter Sylar's attack by thrusting his own hand forward in an almost mirror image of Sylar's current strategy. For a moment, the two men simply glared at each other, their eyes narrowing as they concentrated more and more on their opponent, until Peter suddenly twisted his hand sharply to the left and Sylar's arm was rapidly yanked off to the side with such force that the others actually heard his bone snap.

"GARGH!" Sylar roared in pain, clutching his damaged arm with his other hand as he glared up at Peter. "You… pathetic… _mimic_!"

"Yep," Peter replied, a slight smile on his face as he looked resolutely back at Sylar. "I'm the guy who only _copies_ what other people can do… and you know what? I'm OK with that."

"You'll always be _pathetic_," Sylar retorted, his glare intensifying as he stared at the man he'd come back from the future to kill. "You're weak, Petrelli… you copy what you find and think that makes you great… I take the power from the _source_-"

* * *

"And the fact that Peter's the guy currently on his feet while you're lyin' on the ground with a broken arm means _nothing _to you?" D.L. interjected, walking forward to stand beside his new friend with a slightly teasing smirk on his face. "Dude, from what Hiro told us on the way over here you can't even get the hang of _his _power, but P. here's got it pretty much down like a charm and he's only used it once or twice before he came here."

Then the former convict's eyes narrowed as he glared at the man before him. "On that topic, Hiro tells me you killed me in the future; care to show me how you're handling _my _power?"

D.L. had to give Sylar credit; he didn't back down from a challenge. No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Sylar was swinging a fist towards him, his broken arm left hanging at his side as he struck out at his opponent.

Admittedly, D.L. had no idea if what he was attempting could actually work- it wasn't like he'd ever encountered someone else who could do what he did, after all-, but it was the best thing he could come up with at the moment, so he'd just have to try it out and hope that at least some of Micah's theories about how his powers worked would turn out to be right.

Much to his relief, at least one of them turned out to be true; as soon as D.L.'s hand reached Sylar's arm, he was able to grab the serial killer by the wrist, the other man's stunned expression making it clear that he had been trying to use the power he'd acquired from D.L.'s future self at the time. Like Micah had suspected, it would appear that when D.L. turned intangible he didn't do what Hiro described as a 'Shadowcat'- something about this girl who could do what he did by altering the position of her molecules to slip through the gaps of other objects-, but did something else instead. Some of Micah's other theories that he remembered included the idea that he didn't quite exist in the real world while walking through stuff, but right now D.L. didn't know which theory was accurate and he didn't care.

All that mattered to him right now was that he could touch this prat when the other guy thought _nothing _could touch him; that was all he needed right now.

Before Sylar could come up with another means of attack, D.L. lashed out with a powerful punch that struck Sylar directly in the face, sending the killer staggering backwards and nearly walking _through _a wall before he regained his balance (Something that D.L. was grateful about, as much as he didn't like the guy, he _really _didn't want to have to watch somebody leave their back half in a wall because they'd turned partly solid and didn't realise it). Roaring in rage, he lunged towards D.L. with one glowing blue fist, only for D.L. to automatically 'shift' to allow his opponent to charge right through him, Sylar's fist making contact with the wall behind him and leaving a large patch of ice.

"_You're DEAD_!" Sylar roared, spinning around to face D.L. once again.

"Actually," a voice said from behind Sylar, prompting the killer to spin around just in time to come face-to-face with Peter, "I've got something to say about that."

With that said, the former nurse thrust his fist forward, sending Sylar flying backwards from the force of the punch to crash into the wall behind him.

"Ready to give up _yet_, asshole?" Niki growled as she and the rest of their small group looked contemptuously down at Sylar, Niki sounding more like her alter ego than she ever had before. "Isn't it becoming _pretty _clear that you're not going to pull anything out of your hat that can help you at this rate?"

"You're _nothing_!" Sylar roared, staggering back to his feet even as his twisted nose began to leak blood, evidently having been broken by Peter's last punch. "It is my _destiny _to be superior… you _can't _change history… you-"

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, _asshole_," Peter interrupted, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the man who'd tried to ruin his life, his fists clenched. "You really talk _far _too much for your own good."

"Double-team him?" D.L. asked, his expression grim as he walked forward to stand beside Peter, glancing over inquiringly at the nurse.

"Oh yeah," Peter replied grimly. Before Sylar could say anything else, the two men before him thrust their hands forward simultaneously, phasing them directly into Sylar's forehead even as he stared back at them in shock.

For a moment, Sylar simply stood in front of the two men, his eyes wide as the whites rapidly turned red from the blood vessel damage that had just been inflicted upon him, and then he collapsed to the ground, leaving the two men standing over him with blood-stained fists- both of them looking in disgust at the blood in question- and their assorted friends and family looking at the body of the man whose reign of terror had, directly or indirectly, brought them all together.

It was done.

After all the damage he had caused to so many lives, all the people he had killed in his insane quest to become truly 'special', Sylar's life had ended here, at the hands of some of the few people to encounter him and escape his wrath, in an abandoned hotel that nobody even knew the name of.

Those members of the group who knew about Sylar's motives for doing what he had done- thanks to what they'd learned from Mohinder during their recuperation after the Kirby Plaza battle- found it an appropriate 'punishment', all things considered.

* * *

Finally, after a long silence as the assorted group looked anxiously at Sylar's body- after witnessing him come back from getting stabbed like he'd been during their last fight with him, nobody was going to assume anything until they'd seen him dead in front of them for several minutes-, Niki spoke.

"Is… is it over?" she asked, looking uncertainly over at Peter and her husband, both of whom were currently trying to wipe the blood of their hands and onto the wallpaper; neither of them wanted Sylar's blood on her clothes.

"Unless this sucker killed somebody like Miss Miracle-Gro over there?" D.L. said, indicating Claire with a slight smile even as he grimaced slightly at the sight of his blood-covered fist (It was an efficient way to take somebody out, but it was _really _disgusting). "Since he probably didn't know where she was in the future, I'd say he's out of it."

"Why does _everyone _I tell about my power compare me to something stupid?" Claire asked, smiling slightly to take away the sting of the comment as she studied the body lying in front of her before she stood up to look over at Peter, a suddenly dejected expression on her face as she took in his still appearance. "Peter… are you-"

* * *

When he heard her voice speak his name, the tension from the recent battle still strong, something inside Peter seemed to snap.

He didn't stop to think about the fact that, even with the incest issue out of their way, he was still at least a decade older than she was with no way to currently provide any kind of stable environment for her to live in; he didn't stop to think about the fact that standing over the body of the man who'd brought them together by trying to kill her was far from the best place for this kind of thing; he didn't stop to think about the fact that they were in front of a group of people that he still only barely knew (Even if they had been through some very dramatic experiences that would be enough to encourage bonding no matter how long a prior relationship you had with them); he didn't even to stop to think about how her parents would react at this latest turn of events if they decided to pursue a relationship.

All that mattered was that he was here, she was here, they both _knew _how they felt about each other, and they no longer had to remain apart because of society's rules.

Turning around, a broad smile on his face, Peter walked towards Claire, wrapped his arms around, lifted her up slightly to compensate for the head or so height advantage he had over her, and planted a deep, passionate kiss directly on her lips.

For a moment, Claire simply didn't respond, clearly stunned at what had just taken place, but then she realised what was happening and, grabbing his shoulders, pushed herself away from his lips and out of his arms.

"What the _hell _are you _doing_?" she yelled, indicating the group around her as she stared at him in a mixture of anger and horror. "What happened to our little 'talk' about _ignoring _that little issue? What happened to the part where this isn't _right_? What happened to-"

"You _not _Peter's niece; Flying Man not your father!" Hiro interjected, waving one hand excitedly in the air as he looked at her.

Claire's eyes widened in surprise and- dare Peter allow himself to believe it?- at least a little bit of hope.

"E-excuse me?" she asked, turning slowly to look at Hiro, uncertainty clear on her face as she stared at the time-travelling ex-cubicle worker.

"Long story short?" Matt put in as he looked over at Claire. "Hiro teleported into the future after the Kirby Plaza confrontation and met my future self, the two of them confronted that version of Sylar over there, future me read his mind and found out he'd taken future Hiro's power and used it to make everyone think _Nathan _was your father when it was actually somebody called… what was his name again?"

"Lewis Rushton; no idea who that is at the moment," Hiro added, briefly looking apologetically at Sam before his traditional smile returned. "But that not matter; what _important _is that you _not _Peter's niece, so it OK for him to kiss you!"

For a moment, Claire simply stared silently at the small man before her, as though trying to determine whether or not she should believe him, before she slowly turned to look at Peter.

"You… you're not my uncle?" she said uncertainly, hope slowly spreading across her face as she looked at him.

"Nope," Peter replied, a broad grin covering his face as he looked at her.

"We're… _not _related?"

"If we are, it's only by a _really _distant mutual ancestor; nothing in the last few generations or so, at least," Peter replied, allowing himself a slight chuckle as he looked at her.

For a moment, Claire simply stared at him, processing what she'd just heard and briefly looking at the reactions of the people around her- Niki and Hiro in particular were giving the couple enthusiastic smiles, and even Nathan seemed slightly amused at what was taking place before him-, before she walked over to Peter, wrapped her arms around his neck, and practically yanked his head down so that his lips met hers.

As Peter gathered her up in his arms to return the kiss, lifting her feet off the floor to limit the discomfort of his neck having to bend down to hers, he didn't even register the faint sound of the rest of their makeshift 'team' leaving the abandoned hotel to give the two reunited lovers- they may not have done it yet, but Peter had little doubt that it would be in their future at some point- some much-wanted privacy.

All that mattered to him was that, right here, right now, in Claire's arms, with her lips on his and no feelings of guilt or self-loathing to plague him as he finally expressed his desire for her…

It was heaven.

* * *

AN: Think it's over? Not quite; there's still _one _little loose end to tie up, which I intend to attend to in the next and final chapter…


	16. Sylar's Final End

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you get the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Well, here we are; the final chapter (Sorry it's not the best; my creative streak kind of ran out, but I think I still did OK)

Seeds of the Future

_Peter Petrelli and Claire Bennet  
New York City_

**Two Weeks Later…**

"Once and for all, are you _sure _you want to do this?" Peter asked, looking anxiously at Claire as the two of them stood outside a bar, looking anxiously up and down the street that lay before them. Over the last week, they'd spent most of their free time going over the plans for this upcoming confrontation- assuming that history played out as it should (And they had no reason to assume it wouldn't; nothing that might have affected these upcoming events had been altered as far as they could tell) it would certainly happen tonight-, but Peter still couldn't help but feel at least a little nervous, particularly given his own personal stake in the matter.

If this went wrong…

He wasn't sure he even wanted to spend too much time thinking about it; the plan was risky enough as it was.

But then, as he looked at Claire as she stood before him, dressed in that white shirt and dark trousers she'd worn when he'd first given her the gun that had left him thinking what he'd thought at the time were very _in_appropriate thoughts- he had never been more relieved to learn that he was wrong about something as he was when Hiro told them the truth about her father-, any old fears he might have had about the fight vanished.

After they'd overcome Sylar's future self, despite his own extra decade of experience, they could easily deal with what they had to face now.

"Sure about it? No," Claire replied, as she looked up at Peter. "Know that we have to do it? Yeah; I'd really rather _not _have to live with the idea of that guy showing up again some time."

"Yeah…" Peter commented, nodding in agreement. "That's definitely _not _something I'd like to think about."

Swallowing slightly, he reached over to take one last drink of the beer before him- attempting to recreate the events of the confrontation Hiro and Future Matt had seen almost exactly Peter and Claire had gone to a bar to have a couple of drinks in preparation for the inevitable confrontation that awaited them after this part of the night was over- before he stood up and looked over at Claire. "Let's go; he's waiting, and I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible."

Nodding in agreement, Claire swallowed the last of her own drink- only sparkling water, of course; even if Claire's power made it difficult for her to get drunk, nobody wanted to be accused of breaking the law like that, even when they were about to go off and try to kill somebody- and stood up to follow Peter out of the bar.

As soon as they were outside, the two of them put on overly-enthusiastic grins and, an arm around the other's shoulders, began to walk down the streets, giving the impression to all around them that the only thing they were currently concerned with was each other, totally ignorant to the world around them.

Of course, like all good lies, this one retained at least a small element of truth; after what they'd been through to get to this point, they felt they were entitled to enjoy at least a little time together before things had to get ugly.

"So, seriously, this invisible guy tried to teach you control by throwing you off a _building_?" Claire said in an almost-but-not-quite-too-loud voice, looking incredulously at Peter as though they were continuing a conversation from inside the bar; given Sylar's enhanced hearing, their vocal conversations had to give the impression that they didn't know he was there. "What was _that _all about?"

"I believe his exact words were that, if I didn't figure it out that way, I'd never get it, and he'd have still stopped the explosion thing from happening either way," Peter replied, chuckling slightly at the memory to add to the impression of being slightly intoxicated. "Well then, let's get home, shall we; I, for one, have _plans _for when we get back…"

"Oh, _really_…?" Claire replied, smiling slightly at the mischievous little grin on Peter's face as she leaned in closer. "And what kind of 'plans' would these be?"

"Oh, you know…" Peter said, continuing his slight laughter as he leaned towards her, the two of them continuing to give the impression that there was nothing else for them both but each other, "'plans' involving you, me, and maybe that whipped cream you picked up a while back…"

"_Peter_!" Claire said in a mockingly scandalised voice, stepping back to hit him lightly on the chest. "You _wouldn't_…"

"Nope," Peter replied, shaking his head as he grinned broadly at her. "But really, you should've _seen _the look on your face when you thought I would…"

"Ah, _there _you are," a voice suddenly said from off to one side, prompting Peter and Claire to jump apart as they attempted to appear surprised while looking in the direction of the voice.

Just as Hiro had said he would be, there, standing at the top of the street that they were currently walking along, was Sylar's present self, his arms spread in a casual manner as though waiting for his opponents to attack.

"What; you _survived _getting stabbed like that?" Peter asked, looking in frustration at Sylar; for the moment, they thought it best to try and make Sylar think his presence had been unexpected to better put him off-guard when their fight back began in earnest. "What does it take to kill you; do we have to rip you _apart _before you stop coming back?"

"Unfortunately, you're not going to have the chance to find out," Sylar stated grimly as he stared at Peter, even as the nurse instinctively reached out to freeze time for the street around him; with some help from Hiro, he'd mastered the ability to freeze time for his immediate vicinity while leaving some people still able to move, albeit with Hiro asking as a 'conduit' for his own time-bending ability to help him keep some people moving when the world around them froze rather than him doing it all himself. With this precaution in action, Peter could freely confront Sylar in public without needing to worry about innocent people being caught in the crossfire, while the rest of the 'team'- for lack of a better term- waited for their cue to join the fight in a nearby location.

"So, you stopped yourself going 'Boom', hmm?" Sylar continued, looking contemptuously at Peter as he spoke. "Too bad for you; at least _that_ might have been relatively quick."

Raising his arms, Sylar chuckled slightly as his hands began to glow with the same kind of glow that Peter had generated when he first accidentally tapped into Ted's power.

"I can tell you something for nothing," the villain stated, as he stared at Peter. "You're _not _going to die quickly this time around."

"Really?" Peter retorted, raising his own hands in an almost mirror image of Sylar's current stance, the radioactive 'energy balls' appearing in his hands as well, his entire body language radiating the confidence and certainty in the use of his powers that Claire's love had unlocked within him over the course of the last week. "I'd like to see you try."

With that, the two men hurled the radioactive 'energy balls' at each other, the two attacks meeting each other almost mid-way between the two combatants. The resulting shockwave from the explosion sent Sylar staggering back slightly, the unexpectedness of Peter's retaliatory attack leaving him unprepared for the backlash. Even as Peter and Claire looked at Sylar, they could easily see the slight burns that appeared on his face and hands as a result of the strike; his accelerated metabolism limited the scale of the injuries, but it was still clear that he'd taken at least some damage while Peter's access to Claire's healing power was already helping him, repairing the admittedly slight damage he'd sustained from the backlash.

Peter didn't even give Sylar time to process what had happened; charging forward, he lashed out a punch at the former watchmaker's face, sending him staggering back even as he tried to raise his own fists to launch a retaliatory blow. Peter's use of Niki's enhanced strength increased the damage of his subsequent assault, but it was still clear that Sylar was managing to hold his own; most likely he was using his telekinesis to increase his durability by using his power to provide his blows with even more force than he would have possessed normally.

After the initial punches had been deflected, Peter and Sylar quickly shifted tactics, grasping each other's shoulders and beginning a mock wrestling confrontation each one attempting to force their adversary back. Sylar attempted to shift the odds by generating an ice blast, but Peter triggered his radioactive power to generate a low-level microwave energy that allowed him to melt Sylar's ice almost before it had been formed.

Once again realising that the current combat strategy wasn't going to work, Peter used his borrowed telekinesis to briefly shove Sylar back a few feet before turning invisible. As Sylar stared in surprise at the spot where his adversary had been only moments ago, the now-invisible ex-nurse kicked Sylar in the stomach- at least Sylar assumed it was a kick based on the width of the object that hit him-, turning visible once again as he launched a brief burst of radiation at Sylar. The killer only just managed to dodge the attack by diving to one side, but the attack still left a serious-looking burn on his left arm. Roaring in rage, Sylar thrust out one hand at Peter, forcing the empath to his feet as he screamed in pain, once again feeling as though his bones had suddenly lost all cohesion and he was going to fall apart at any moment…

Then a loud whoosh suddenly passed right over Peter, shortly before he looked up in time to see Nathan crash into Sylar and send him hurtling back into a nearby wall, the Congressman in question subsequently flying up to hover above Sylar with a resolute glare on his face.

"You're pretty good when you're going up against people who aren't prepared for you, _Mr Gray_," Nathan growled, his fists clenched as he stared at the man who'd come so close to ruining the life of his brother and the woman he loved. "How long do you think you'll last against a group who actually have a _plan _to fight you?"

"_My name is SYLAR_!" Sylar roared, thrusting out one hand to try and attack his opponent with a telekinetic burst. As though he was simply side-stepping a thrown ball, Nathan casually moved to one side in mid-air, flying backwards to land beside Claire and Peter as the mimic got to his feet, Claire's power repairing the bone damage caused by Sylar's last assault.

"Did we miss anything?" D.L. asked as he, Niki, and Matt walked up to stand beside their new allies, the group exchanging smiles; Micah and Molly were, as ever, remaining with Heidi and Mohinder respectively while their normal parents and guardians dealt with the current situation.

"I left him with a bit of a burn, he tried to make my bones collapse… about what we were expecting," Peter replied, shrugging slightly as he looked at where Sylar was currently struggling to get back to his feet. "Ready to quit yet, _Gabriel_?"

"Dude's got a point; you can't exactly take on _all _of us," D.L. added, trying to avoid showing his continued discomfort from the bullet wounds he'd acquired in Kirby Plaza. He and Matt were healing pretty well, but even with Nathan covering their hospital bills they still had a bit of a way to go before they were ready to actually go hand-to-hand with Sylar; their last fight alone had been pushing their luck. "Why don't you just stop now and get out while you can?"

"NEVER!" Sylar roared, thrust both hands forward to shoot a powerful burst of ice at his foes; almost instinctively, Peter and D.L. both acted to protect the others, Peter's telekinesis deflecting the ice from him, Nathan, Claire and Hiro while D.L. turned himself, Matt and Niki intangible and allowed the ice to pass through them.

"Give it up, Sylar," Peter stated coldly as he lowered his hand. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be…"

Sylar didn't even bother to reply to that comment; his gaze fixed on Peter, his eyes narrowed as he charged towards his foe, Peter only just managed to grab Sylar's outstretched fist and hurl him over his head to hit the ground. Seemingly tapping into the super-speed that granted him his limited healing ability, Sylar was back on his feet within mere seconds, only for Niki and D.L. to punch him practically simultaneously in the face and send him staggering back once again; even without superstrength, the occasionally intangible ex-convict could still pack a punch when he wanted to.

"Right then," Matt said, narrowing his eyes and glaring at Sylar. Before Sylar could retaliate, he suddenly thrust his head back and screamed, clutching at his head as though something had just struck him directly in the centre of his mind.

"GAGH!" Sylar screamed, clutching at his head as though he was trying to stop his brain from crawling out of his skull. "Wh… wha… ARGH!"

"Reliving memories of old pain," Matt said by way of explanation, looking over at his friends with a slight smile; he'd been practicing that aspect of his power over the last couple of weeks ever since Hiro had told him about what his future self had been capable of, but this was the only time he'd been able to confirm if he'd mastered it or not. "Definitely _not _the most pleasant thing to have to deal with, but it should keep him distracted at least."

"Right then," Peter said resolutely, as he stepped forward to better glare at the man before him. "If he's out of action, it's time to _end _this."

If it had been anyone else he'd been fighting, he would have tried to find another way; he wasn't a violent man by nature, even if his powers did make him a more competent combatant than he'd been before they'd manifested.

But this man had tried to kill Claire, he'd actually killed Ted and Isaac, and his future self had made Peter think that he was a sick pervert in love with his niece simply to ensure he'd remain free to continue his deranged murder sprees; Hiro's trip to the future had already confirmed that no prison could hold him for long, and there was no way that they knew of to deprive him of his powers so that he couldn't hurt anyone with them ever again.

As far as Peter was concerned, the sooner this bastard was dead, the better.

"Goodbye," he said grimly as Sylar looked up at him, hatred brimming in his eyes.

With that last image, Peter thrust his hand into Sylar's forehead, the whites of the man's eyes swiftly filling with blood in a manner that was almost identical to what had happened to his future self after the last battle. As Sylar stared in shock and horror at his adversary, the last faint vestiges of his personality faded away, leaving only a lifeless pile before him.

Once again, it was over.

And this time- unless Sylar's _past _self somehow managed to get into the present for some demented reason- it had finally been ended for good.

* * *

"So," Niki asked, looking curiously over at her new friends as she stood over the fallen body of Sylar, "what do we do now?"

"Huh?" Hiro said, looking over at the former Internet stripper in confusion.

"I mean, we just saved a city and took down two different versions of a super-powerful homicidal maniac within the space of a couple of weeks; where do we go from here?" Niki pointed out, looking uncertainly over at her allies. "You gotta admit, whatever happens after something like this, we're still going to not be exactly normal; what do we do with ourselves now?"

For a moment, the group simply stood in the street where they had so recently fought for their lives, looking for the second time at the body of the man who had brought them together as a result of his desire to be special turning him against the world, before Peter finally spoke.

"One thing I do know," he said, smiling down at Claire as he held her in his arms. "Whatever comes up in the future… whatever challenges we have to overcome… we'll face it together."

Looking around at each other once again, all of the group assembled there knew, in a manner that they'd never known anything before that moment, that the former nurse was right. They all knew that it would be hard to find a more random group of people to come together at any point in history- a congressional candidate whose victory had been rigged by outside forces, a former stripper, an ex-convict, a cheerleader, a nurse, a dsylexic cop and an office worker-, but, at the same time, they all knew that none of them would trade the bond they'd formed these last few days for anything.

Sylar's actions and Linderman's schemes had brought them together out of a mixture of necessity and coincidence.

It was their own actions that had created the bond that now existed between them.

"We a team!" Hiro added, a broad smile on his face as he looked at the group of assorted superhumans around him. "We kick ass!"

Despite themselves, none of the others could stop from smiling at the Japanese man's boyish enthusiasm; if Peter and Claire served as the heart of the team, Hiro was undoubtedly the team's 'inner child' (As Nathan had once described him) personified, retaining a certain innocence and wonder even when he was potentially the single most powerful member of their group (Peter's ability to draw on the powers of others didn't count as he was technically relying on others to achieve his power level).

Their lives from this point onwards would be difficult, challenging, and beyond anything they could have expected prior to the events of the last month or so…

And, to say the least, all of them were looking forward to it.

_The End_


End file.
